Author: Vic Socotra

Hot Wash

I am going to deal with the impending death of exercise Top Officials 2 today. It doesn’t know it is dying, but most of the press conferences are over, and Governor Ridge is going to have the limelight up in Chicago today. The senior people are going to stop going to the videconferences, and the […]

Chicagoland

I gave up this morning. Exercise Top Officials 2 has eaten my lunch, or rather my breakfast. Oh, sure, I was up early enough, I got the coffee started and then went back to lie down just for a moment. Then some flaw in the space-time continuum occurred, a temporal fugue. I suddenly was nearing […]

Measles

I’m whipped. I didn’t get home until near nine last night and getting up early enough to churn out the electronic version of the daily fish-wrapper is kicking my butt. I stagger through the ritual of making the coffee and filling the fry pan with something or other. I ate so late that I am […]

Into the Slipstream

ARLINGTON, May 12, 2003- God it is early. I am not reaqdy to get sucked into the vortex of this week. I stayed up late last night, talking to my Mother on her day, and even a remarkably civil conversation with my ex, the first such I have had in a couple years. Her call […]

It All Counts on Twenty

Walter Sisulu is dead this morning, dead at ninety in South Africa. He was the deputy chief of the African National Congress. He had Parkinson’s at the end, a long decline for such a strong man. He recruited Nelson Mandella into the Party, and served a quarter century in the slammer on Robbin Island with […]

Cinco de Mayo

The SARS epidemic seems to have longer legs than the Iraqi war. The best Iraqi story is about mustaches, and the facto that more men are opting to shave off the furry lip-caterpillars associated with the late and unlamented regime. The pandemic as the top story this morning from Hong Kong, and the war has […]

Episcopals Under the Driveway

It was brilliant and as close to perfect as it gets in Northern Virginia. Mid Spring it was, still cool in the morning and just warming to shirtsleeves before lunch. The azaleas rioting in colors too vibrant to be real. Glorious. Alive in a way the city can never be, and before the hot humid […]

Riding the Tiger

It is early and the coffee is beginning to work. I’m on the cusp here. The news washes over me as I think of what is to come on this freshly laundered day. The thunderstorms rolled through just as I was losing consciousness last night. The ozone is right this morning, and though humid it […]

The Dead Wings

The defending world champions, the Red Wings, are out of the Stanley Cup playoffs in the first round. They were the only reason to get out of bed in early Spring in Detroit. They were swept by Anaheim’s Mighty Ducks, who are owned by the Disney organization and named after a children’s movie. The also-rans […]

Balls Bluff

It’s the Boston Marathon today, the granddaddy of American Marathons. I salute all those who are running. I never got close to a time that would qualify for entry in the field when I could still run 26.2 miles, but I am proud that I ran seven of those races. Or at least I am […]