Author: vicSocotra

Three Strikes and You’re…

(This is an image of a fellow named Bairon Hernandez, produced through police reporting. Our interns spent more time removing the NYPD markings than digging into his history. They assumed it was bad. Which is what started their contribution.) Miles asked the interns to take a look. It was another in a continuing string of […]

Arrias and his Muse: Bone

 Mullah, son of a Mullah, He’s the new big man in town, Though it seems to be starting slow, Rumor has it he’s wearing a frown. Seems he was near his pappy, At least according to an anonymous reporter, And one of the early airstrikes Made him a foot shorter… He no longer has an […]

Spring Unfolds at The Trillium

It is 83 degrees yesterday at The Trillium, home of “Vibrant Senior Living” in the posh new building that looks down on what was Farmer Tyson’s Corner. Miles had Boomrs, Zoomers and Tweeners down on the benches greeting residents and their visitors with Springtime cheer. Concierge Christian and Old Jim were on patrol around the […]

Waning Gibbous Into Spring

Spring is breaking early along the Potomac. Across the river, the Washington Post promises to explain the Middle East to us again. David Ignatius and Jason Rezaian will hold forth this week on what Iran means today. We could walk over to the Post HQ on K Street and listen, as if the paper still […]

Waning Gibbous Into Spring

Spring is breaking early along the Potomac. Across the river, the Washington Post promises to explain the Middle East to us again. David Ignatius and Jason Rezaian will hold forth this week on what Iran means today. We could walk over to the Post HQ on K Street and listen, as if the paper still […]

Arrias Sends: A Sonnet for Spring

The great gray monsters now covered in red, A million little buds on every tree, For in an instant glum winter has fled, Now the world is renewed for all to see. Suddenly a riot of color thrills, Whites, brilliant reds, and there a neon pink, Cherry trees, dogwoods and yellow daffodils, The mind spins! […]

Razin’ Cane & Regime Change

The version suitable for polite circulation. This is how Miles would like you to view the Socotra House Daily meeting: studied, dressed, composed. Ready to deliver informed commentary to help navigate the tumult of the day with calm sophistication. As you know, that is largely a charade designed to conceal what the 4th Floor Conference […]

Bay of Falcons

We won’t even try to start the morning meeting this close to lunch. There’s a growing sentiment to simply move Happy Hour forward — something more accommodating to deal with the increasing number of interesting, or threatening, meme-streams flowing around. Splash and Rocket thought “ceyo” might mean an inlet or bay, and started their pitch […]

Rucksacks & Reclineers

There were some sleepy, baffled-looking people filtering into the conference room this morning. A few of the Boomers admitted they’d slept in their recliners trying to make it to the end of the President’s State of the Union. It was long. It was disciplined. It was predictable. The whiteboard got fuzzy as we tried to […]

Another Onion

The room was restive. Which is to say, the Boomers—whose minor prostate issues have them up early—and some of the Zoomers were trickling in from their parents’ places in Fairfax or Manassas. A few were just returning from their dens in the District. Some had done volunteer shoveling with the Building crew yesterday, and the […]