Author: vicSocotra

A Pleasant View

We are about to get sucked back into an assessment of what we may be doing to Iran this afternoon. Word from the Flatscreen at the end of the Conference Room is that strikes could be renewed today—and that they may do something significant. That follows Friday’s strikes, which fragmentary reporting suggested lasted approximately two […]

THE FINAL FLIGHT OF A ROSIE

It is with sadness that we note the passing of Jeanne Gibson, one of the last surviving “Rosie the Riveters” of the Greatest Generation. Jeanne died Wednesday, July 29, 2026, at the remarkable age of 100. Her family and friends mourn the loss of a woman whose courage, dedication and unwavering spirit helped shape history—and […]

Chicken Under a Brick

POLLO AL MATTONE WITH GRILLED PINEAPPLE SIDES Splash takes four plump birds, four wrapped bricks, six pineapples and one busy Weber to feed the afternoon watch.  AFTERNOON EDITION Thanks for bearing with us through the morning Conference Table flail. The news cycle was already moving when the Galley discovered that a box of pineapples […]

THE FINAL FLIGHT OF A ROSIE

Inline image It is with sadness that we note the passing of Jeanne Gibson, one of the last surviving “Rosie the Riveters” of the Greatest Generation. Jeanne died Wednesday, July 29, 2026, at the remarkable age of 100. Her family and friends mourn the loss of a woman whose courage, dedication and unwavering spirit helped […]

The Originals

There are people who create things. Then there are Originals. Those are the people who change the way the rest of us see the world. Vics’s father, William Edwin Reddig, was one of them. [Bill and the Kelvinator Design Team] George Romney didn’t hire Bill because he could draw. He hired him because he could […]

Afternoon Edition of Daily Socotra; 112 Fifths!

A Senate Committee Hearing—And a Nation Keeps Watch And in this moment of transmission, ballistic missiles are arcing across the Mideast. We will have more on that tomorrow morning. Or if some barracade collapses with unexpected consequence, a special edition. We had hoped to get some clarification this morning about the great public health crisis […]

Taking The Fifth

The images above are what caused our Deirdre to become a little concerned this morning. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the physician who led the nation’s infectious disease response for decades, is appearing before a Senate committee today. For Vic, the hearing is personal. He has often joked around the Conference Room that Dr. Fauci once testified […]

Muffulettas, Missiles and Daily Drones

You can imagine the confusion in the Conference Room this morning. Miles had Vic and Pastor Frank giving a quick briefing on what was happening overseas while I was trying to organize lunch. Then Miles disappeared, muttering something about taking a swim over at the old headquarters before his afternoon session in Pentagon City. That […]

The Socotra Galley System

Miles said I could run another one of what he considers “Deirdre’s stuff” this afternoon since nothing major has exploded since breakfast. He wants to maintain the pleasant fiction that life these days has a semblance to what we once knew. But that is how dramatic change works, right? For example, we have agreed to […]