Author: Vic Socotra

Marlow’s Meatballs: From Little Italy

Morning, Gentle Readers! This is a note from a deferred tradition. It goes back a ways through several contributors, though with a stringent eligibility criterion. They can no longer be strictly of this world. The project began with the Cook-Book we started with Jinny Martin. There has been a curious periodic eruption of old Spook […]

Old Friends Meet: Nothing Happens in Beijing

In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry, left, meets with Chinese Vice President Han Zheng, right, in Beijing, Wednesday, July 19, 2023. China is willing to work with Washington on reducing global warming as long as its political demands are met, the country's vice president told […]

Making Progress

A writer named Monica Showalter had a strange piece on the American Thinker website this morning. She wrote it last week, but the appearance this morning was sort of startling. Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth is concerned about recruiting numbers and is taking action to rectify the situation. She is drafting- or rather, having […]

Travel and Messaging

We are a little turned around this morning, and our apologies go out to you. There was news last week about America’s Climate Emissary traveling to the People’s Republic of China. We wondered why he was an Emissary, since he had previously been dubbed the “Climate Czar.” That conjured up images of the old story […]

Arrias and His Muse: Porter and the Frog

What is that by the door? Porter will investigate! Her head goes down for a closer look, She’s in quite an excited state! Suddenly it moves – Porter jumps! All four feet off the ground, Then down she comes, her head goes down, But she doesn’t make a sound! Another blink, it moved again, Porter […]

Only Fifteen to Go!

The early thunder prompted a glance at the growing gray light spilling in around the blinds. Only fifteen months to go! Plus, it is a medical morning, an appointment with the cardio Doc that had been an afternoon affair but rescheduled to middle morning to accommodate a surgical intervention not directly related to any of […]

Back to the Future

“A US National on a Joint Security Area (JSA) orientation tour crossed, without authorisation, the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) into the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK),” the UN Command said on Twitter. “We believe he is currently in DPRK custody and are working with our [North Korea’s People’s Army] counterparts to resolve this incident.” […]

Going to the Movies

We went back to Korea this morning for a quick visit to the bar of the Hamilton Hotel on the street in the Itae-wan district of Seoul. It was 1981, tensions were “high,” and there were several parties in town conducting a variety of licit and illicit activities. None of us are going back, though […]

Constant Motion

This particular tale turned up in a search through the Korea Files. We had been looking for something about that strange Cyprus trip to insert in the manuscript for the book about Congressional Travel. Instead, we found ourselves seated at one of the battered stools at the Hamilton Hotel’s street front bar in Seoul, Republic […]

Long Marchers

Did you see the date on this one? I left it in there from the morning 22 years ago when the below account was first poked into the digital stream about a place called “China.” It was an attempt to capture a fresh recollection of a visit to one of those exotic places. This one […]