OK, it is a little warmer out on the balcony this morning. The previous cold hanging over us had artificially extended the holiday regime (for some) all the way from Thanksgiving through the Epiphany, with a last surge to commemorate the legacy of Dr. King. That required libations from the Belmont Farm Distillery in Culpeper. […]

This morning is a product of the continued bedlam of the new year. We have a Speaker of the House again, a new one, and there is all sorts of squirming around on the partisan political front. Some of it involves the President’s Corvette, which we understand is one of those cool ones from 1967. […]

(The larger of the two small signs affixed to this utility pole marks the boundary of the District of Columbia. Marlow sent it along this morning with only a mildly exasperated observation on how things change. In this image, there is a bus line that operated in a satisfactory manner on a street that defined […]

After some-inside-the-park legislative activity in the first week of the legislative New Year, the second dawned bright with the new majority in America’s House of Representatives. Some members of the old majority who liked the spotlight have been dismissed from positions of higher visibility than they previously enjoyed. Another series of the sort of partisan […]

There was a little confusion as the New Year finally came out of the blocks. This morning we are grounding aircraft and the first articles of impeachment have been filed already. It was delayed a bit with the election of Speaker McCarthy to take the gavel most recently handled by Madam Pelosi. The Secretary of […]

The Trilogy is published and available! “Cocktails With the Admiral” is at Politics and Prose under “Vic Socotra.” Voyage to the CROSSROADS: Received this morning, a bold new edition of Last Cold War Cruise! Available at: They may come from different sellers, but the size is uniform and they nestle nicely! Last Cold War Cruise […]

(“Salty,” an image of a World War II Yankee sailor, salty as heck, done by W.E. Reddig, 1944) It is a New Year with some interesting events on our spinning world to come! There are some other issues coming together on the bluff above the Potomac River. We are done with the holidays, finally, with […]

(Former Brazilian leader Bolsonsaro, left, and current president Lula, right, in a delightful juxtaposition of their positions on the Spectrum). When your Pundit Class, as represented by the Writer’s Section at Socotra House, an independent assortment of Salty world travelers, is reduced to reading the AP account of what is happening in Brazil, you know […]

Well, we looked around but saw no alternatives. There was a proposal to use an image of a sunlit country road curving through green gentle hills, growing in Spring. Maybe with balloons on the margins. We have a great day ahead and are in good shape, all things considered. There is some natural inclination to […]

(The pie was quite real when it popped out of the oven). It took 15 ballots to confirm things, but we are in general but closely divided unity. One segment is our group on the hill west of the District and the one downtown where they capitalize The Hill. One segment of the Writer’s Section […]