Author: Vic Socotra

Full Spectrum

Full Spectrum I walked out of Union Station completely unaware of the sticking point. The vast marble bulk of the train station was behind me, tourists jamming the concourse the runs between the Metro and the real trains. The Phoenix Park Hotel, home of the Dubliner bar, was on my right. Fish and Chips and […]

The Rapture

20 September 2006 The Rapture The Times has surrendered, as I knew they would. It doesn’t matter whether the Pope had a point in bringing up what it was like in a time before the Eastern Empire was put to the sword, given the choice of conversion or slavery. The Holy Father is in an […]

Context

Religious fanatics attacked me yesterday, using all the media at their disposal. A friend found herself doing something she had not done since the 10th of September 2001. It rattled her, and to a degree, it upset me, too. I don’t trust my emotions as much as I once did. I had the willies that […]

Oxytocin

Oxytocin I was out by the pool, shivering as I toweled off under the leaden sky. Peter, the owner-manager of the Deep Blue swimming empire, had ceased his occasional glances across the deep end to see if I was still afloat. His phone chirped periodically as other pools checked in, and schedules and time cards […]

Santa Esmerelda

Santa Esmerelda OK, so I blew it. I was tired from the week and should have gone down. I was pretty good about moving up my bedtime, and I had a resolution to do the same that night. There was a great movie on, the astonishingly violent Quentin Tarantino vehicle “Kill Bill, Volume 1.” I […]

Rehab Ward

I traveled through DC in the rain to meet up with Maria and Nick. It was a somber day to be on the broken concrete and there were the usual commuter miscues at every key juncture; but naturally, that is not the story. It took nearly two hours to drive across town. Google would tell […]

Sock Puppet

It is cool today, and rain is coming from the Midwest. There is driving to be done, and a long session in an airless vault to fulfill the annual requirement to be reminded that there is a significant counter-intelligence threat out there. A person with a sock-puppet on their hand could make it more interesting […]

Green and Gray

Green and Gray I scooted out of the office a little early to beat the rush across the 14th Street Bridge. I managed to get there without much trouble, and drove to Ft. Myer, where I purchased a bouquet of red flowers. Then I drove around the perimeter of the cemetery to the public entrance, […]

Nine Eleven

Nine Eleven It is raining this morning, which is a fitting book-end to a lovely weekend. It is also That Anniversary, the one that is so problematic. It is good that this day is somber and gray. It fits the mood. The day itself was something else altogether. It might have started as one of […]

The End is Near

The End is Near The President is headed for New York, for the anniversary that hangs in the middle distance of everything. The docudrama that ABC has cooked up about the events that led to the mass murder has caused quite a stir. I was around some of the arguments when they happened- not the […]