First Day Ah! The delicious scent of morning in a fresh new year, barely out of the package! The coffee smells richer on the first day, and everything is filled with promise. I am weary of the last few weeks of looking back. I can’t take that load of old clothes to the Goodwill yesterday and […]

Singularity I am confused, but I maintain it is not my fault. It is the press of events, the acceleration of the Holidays. The festive days fall on the Weekends this cycle, and it is Saturday that is the last day of a very strange year. Tomorrow should be the day for stillness and hangover recovery, […]

A Dry Martini “I like to have a martini; Two at the very most; After three I’m under the table; After four I’m under my host.” -Dorothy Parker The dark lobby bar was filled with holiday merrymakers. Elegant wood paneling crept tree-quarters of the way up to the high ceiling. An odd mural of Asian […]

Resolution I had a feeling that Michigan was going to go down to Nebraska in the Alamo Bowl, and looking at the clock, realized the unhappy event would not be until well after eleven. My boys did not appear to have the resolution to win the contest. I was surprised to find that I was […]

Inflection Point Somewhere in the sprawling vastness of Manhattan , Christopher “Ryan” Henry, the OSD Principle Deputy Undersecretary for Policy, was addressing an exclusive gathering of senior executives from the private sector. I was in Mid-town at that very moment, walking from Penn Station up 7 th Avenue toward the Algonquin Hotel. I was in […]

Christmas Carol I heard the President quite by accident last night. I was doing something else, cleaning up from dinner after the Washington Redskins trounced the hated Cowboys. The Simpsons were coming up, an all-new episode, when something happened. The Boys had been fooling with the remote control as we watched the game. I’m old […]

Too Hot It is cold in Washington , but in the context of the calamities of this year, I can deal with that. At the moment, things are fairly calm, no Tsunamis or Hurricanes, and thankfully even Congress finally went home, leaving us alone on the suddenly quiet streets of the District. That is the good news, but I […]

Little Pitchers Children hear and understand more than you think they do. I know that from hard experience as a parent, and they often reach conclusions that may be accurate though inconvenient. That is true with a friend of mine, and it has been true for a long time. “Little pitchers have big ears,” goes […]

Outsourcing Nobody is talking about the coming plague much today. There is so much else in play and much at stake. The Iraqis are going to be voting, and there will probably be fewer suicide attacks, since travel by automobile is banned. That can’t go on for long, of course, since goods must be distributed. […]

Charlie Horse That Charlie is as strong as a Clydesdale. He has been in the federal harness for 47 years, analyzing and collecting information on the enemies of the United States . He appears in a Harvard JFK School of Government Case Study of the Achilles Lauro hi-jacking. I was sitting in class up at […]