Kokura’s Luck The earth is turning across the dateline and the anniversary of the day has already happened in Hiroshima . It is another round number, sixty this time, since the sleek B-29 named after the pilot’s mother arrived in the morning sky. The mayor of the city called for the nuclear powers to abandon […]

Grapevine The President made his announcement on Prince Spaghetti Day down in a place called Grapevine, Texas . I assume that is near Crawford, where the ranch is. He is starting his five-week vacation, and I am pleased he has found a little time to get away from the stress here in town. August is […]

Convenient Crashes They are going to bury King Fahd of Saudi Arabia in an unmarked grave in the Kingdom today. It will be a humble rite in keeping with his fierce faith. Ronald Reagan traveled about in grand style after his passing, but the other People of the Book seem to place more emphasis on getting […]

Recess I opened up my copy of The Hill newspaper this morning to see what events were going to shape my week. I am very reactive in my planning, since there are so many things going on I have to cherry-pick activities. I am still reeling a bit from the amount of legislation that was […]

Rangers My Uncle was in the prime of life when one of his projects hit the news. It was 1964, at the end of July, when the press conference was held. He must have been in his late 50’s, not much different than I am now. Only smarter, of course, and still at the zenith […]

Newark I watched the lush greenness of the state of New Jersey roll by a variety of windows yesterday. It was a day of looking out windows. The first was from the Metroliner, square cars pulled by a boxy old engine. Amtrak had to scour the country for trains like these to put on the lucrative route up the […]

Broad Support (and a Lot of Money) It has been a big week. A major Terrorist organization declared itself out of business and we launched a Space Shuttle that we might not be able to get back down. These are interesting times indeed. I am walking out the door to catch a train to New […]

Shooting Rockets The radio chirped on my desk at the Bus Station and told me that the storms would begin arriving just after lunch. The nice lady told me they would pound us until long after old bureaucrats would be in bed, or dozing in their armchairs. My office window looks down on the covered courtyard, […]

Turning Up the Heat It was the beginning of a heat wave, a mass of sultry air that oozed across the Blue Ridge and gathered us up in a moist embrace. Moisture condensed on the inside of the windows at Big Pink, and air conditioning was turned up all over the area. The engineers at […]

Gravity An effective swing of the polo mallet requires a partnership with gravity. You can jerk it around, fight the natural process, but that wastes energy. I was gaining an appreciation for that in horse country. The afternoon light was remarkable, lighting the hills of Faquier County in emerald. The breeze was fresh and the […]