Main Navy and Munitions Last night was an affair at Big Pink. The Admiral was coming to dinner. He is the senior flag officer of my acquaintance, the Last Man Standing from his generation. I bustled around in the afternoon in preparation. I had matching plates set out, and the silver setting that I bartered […]

Svengalis My bet is that she winds up remembered like Jayne Mansfield, a lesser luminary to Marilyn, perhaps on par with Kim Novak, or perhaps Mamie Van Doren or the sadly neglected Sheree North. But I could be wrong. There is a Svenagali in the mix, and that is a wild card. My assessment is […]

Business Etiquette The Candidate was supposed to come on the conference call at 8:30PM, Eastern Standard Time. I think he was back in New Mexico, where he maintains his day-job as the Governor. It would be considerably earlier there, still light. He had been back here for the Democratic offsite meeting, and the website said […]

The Carry Cup I get questions, and I think about them. Why don’t you write about Scooter Libby and the clear obstruction of justice? That popped up the other day. I demurred, looking down the barrel of a Cuban cigar at a glass of smoky cognac. Of course it is riveting. There is nothing more […]

While You Were Sleeping The snow fell overnight. Not much, a dusting for hardier people in the upper Mid-West, but enough to throw the capital into the usual cocked-hat automotive chaos that attends any deviation from the norm. Which is, perhaps, why people are not as startled by the news that the world was divided […]

The Parthian Shot Let us acknowledge, this chilly Washington morning, the deaths of 130 and wounding of hundreds of others in the crowded Sarriya market in Baghdad. They died for the crime of shopping for dinner, and some religious schism a thousand years old. It was about a ton of explosives, the biggest vehicle-borne explosive […]

The moon is no ghostly galleon this morning, though it floats in a wind tossed sky above the west parking lot of Big Pink. Silver light from its serene pale face battles that of the rising sun. It will lose, of course, but it is not going without a struggle. Rays of cold seem to […]

It is Seattle coffee in the drip percolator this morning. The Russian stuff has run out, and I will not be re-supplied until next month. It is back to the industrial-sized bags of beans that produce and industrial-size buzz. I am confident that the Seattle name has nothing to do with the beans themselves, which […]

A Department At War It is a good morning some places. The nomination of Mike McConnell seemed to sail right through the Senate Intelligence Committee yesterday, and will go to the floor shortly for final passage. I heard him on the radio, a little wary in tone, but confident and authoritative. I was proud when […]

A Matter of Honor It was cold, bitter cold for Washington, but the sun flew solo in the blue, and was doing its best to limn every branch and leaf with brilliance. A few forlorn patches of snow remained where there were perpetual shadows in the lee of the graceful Memorial Bridge as I swung […]