Cedric the Great It was the last day of winter and I was walking into one of the Agency buildings. It was not one of the famous ones, though the Chinese restaurant across the street was said to have a silent partner in the People’s Liberation Army. I had to swipe my badge through the […]

Ramblers I was out rambling around the town yesterday after a day in the vault. It is a most secure vault in an anonymous building. They don’t want us bothered on the project we are working, which is an examination of military intelligence with an eye toward reorganization and realignment. It is very sensitive, since […]

Dragon Patchy fog and rain this morning, cold and dank. It snowed in the night, though it did not stick. Old names and new ones floated through my dreams. I blame the neighbors for my fitful sleep. The Ironworkers returned late lfrom their celebration of the Patron Saint of Ireland, and befuddled with spirits, missed […]

Anno Domini The players are all set this morning. There are fire-fights in Waziristan, in the tribal area of north Pakistan, and the big Spring Offensive is underway. Revanchist Iraqis are well into it, continuing to murder American civilians in the Sunni Triangle. President Arisitide, accompanied by Congresswoman Maxine Waters of California, has returned to […]

The First Thing I was going to write this morning about Sedna, the new quasi-planet that is so far out there that it comes from the cloud of ice. The first thing I heard about it was that it was a new planet, or at least that if Pluto is a planet, then Sedna is […]

The Victors It is the precise middle of the merry month of March, and there are little black blossoms all around. They are the negative image of the bright Spring flowers to come. They have fire at their core. Two Palestinian kids strapped on martyr vests yesterday and penetrated the tall fence and tight security […]

Red and Blue It is the week of the anniversary of our military victory in Iraq and I am thinking about the strong strain of Puritanism in our collective lineage. It goes a long way to understanding our national intolerance It runs from the thundering moralists in New England like Cotton Mather to the fire-and-brimstone, […]

Everyday Perils God bless Nicholas Kristoff. He helped me put it all in perspective this morning. I didn’t know what to say this morning before I read his column in The Times. As I predicted, the death toll has continued to rise in the Madrid bombing and questions remain as to who perpetrated the outrage. […]

Madrile�os We are all Madrile�os this morning, or so says the op-ed page of the Times. It is beginning to sound hollow. Trite, even. I do not really feel Spanish this morning. I just feel a low anger and mounting frustration. So this time it is a clockwork operation of ten bombs, three trains, 200 […]

I Hate Thursday I furrowed my brow, wondering how this magnificent temple of my mind is crumbling under the weight of the years. Something else happened on September 11th. I knew it, had run across it, was struck by it and could not remember. I lay flat on my back, looking up. I hate Thursdays. […]