Author: Vic Socotra

Serpents

The editors of the New York Times must be disappointed today. They ran another lead story about an intelligence failure. They like to do that, keep our attention on the bobbles and set-backs so we lose our confidence and question our way. The lead  story was about the CIA-funded operation run out of the Station […]

Number of the Beast

Number of the Beast It is D-Day. There is far more reason to celebrate today than there is to cower below the bed. The celebration should be real, a tribute to men brave and not brave, who crossed the English Channel in small boats and climbed the sand dunes and began the long walk east […]

Unintended Consequences

Unintended Consequences I was watching “60 minutes” last night, which is an unusual occurrence, an unintended consequence of the transition to the summer season. I emerged from the pool a few minutes before closing and padded across the deck with my towel. I said goodnight to Igor, the lifeguard, who looked a bit tired. It […]

Bar Story

Stop me if you have heard this one- this guy walks into a bar, and sits down and wonders what the hell he did with his life. He has a couple drinks, scanning the door for a business associate who doesn’t show up. It is the closest bar to the Pentagon, get it? Most of […]

The Question You Ask

The Question You Ask We had been at Lincoln Field, the home of the National Football League Eagles. It is located in the sports complex that sprawls below South Philly. It was on the cusp of he season, a fine May day that preasged the heat of the summer to come. There were no beer […]

Thing of Wonder

I was in motion, on foot and by train. I was not paying much attention to Barry Bonds and his quest to pass Babe Ruth on the home run list. I was pointedly not thinking about the reason the long holiday weekend had been created.  I decided to reserve my thoughts for the Lost and […]

SOX

SOX I heard the word in the afternoon, sometime before the two o’clock meeting on Security. The jury in Texas convicted Jeff Skilling and Ken Lay on all counts in the Enron melt-down. I was happy to hear it. They were thorough-going bastards. There had been a book about the Enron management team. “The Smartest […]

Hoffa Cupcakes

Hoffa Cupcakes The consensus is hardening. Al Gore was right all along. Global Warming is a reality, and even old curmudgeons like myself are climbing on the Green Bandwagon, just as the cost of oil is making it possible for private entrepreneurs to proliferate technologies that could save us. Columnist Thomas Freidman thinks that there […]

Up and Down

The Boys are pretty amazing. I remember when they were small, and even before they were around at all. Now they are tall lean creatures with their own lives and opinions. They were flipping up and down the electromagnetic spectrum. in the upper unit at Big Pink.  I almost said �dialing,� which is absurd, since […]