Category: DailySocotra

The Bombs

A shipmate sent along a remarkable link to a set of pictures I had never seen before. They are images of the weapons used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and delivered by B-29 long-range bombers operating from Tinian Atoll in 1945. At one time classified “Top Secret,” they now open a window on horror as a […]

The Circle is Smaller

(A picture of the living family, circa 1977. The balance has now shifted to the other shore. Bill, Betty and now daughter Ann are getting it prepared for our reunion, when it comes. Angie the White Dog will ensure there is exuberance in the life everlasting). I rose this morning at the usual bridge from […]

Sunday Story

It is a lovely cool morning in Virginia’s Piedmont. The blue skies of heaven have a slight tinge of dust down near the horizon line. There had been a plan to tell a story this morning about some of the happenings on The Hill, but reality intruded with a call from family traveling on a […]

Losing Defense?

We had a joyous New Year’s day down on The Farm. Many folks across this broad and fertile land managed to pass it by without a great deal of emotion. The Writer’s Section at Socotra House took it with aplomb. There used to be a party held by the Office of Management and Budget people […]

Year of the Tiger

I almost put “2022” in the date above, because at the stroke of midnight last night we entered into bold new temporal territory: we have left the sodden wreckage of Fiscal 2021 behind, and entered into Fiscal 2022 without a budget! But of course I am getting ahead of myself, just like the Budget. Here […]

WEATHER REPORT: World Ends Tomorrow?

In one of those moments that informs us that the World is Not actually Ending (tomorrow) the Congressional baseball teams will gather late this afternoon for the annual bipartisan (but fiercely divided) baseball game. In one of the more poignant aspects of this amazing week, Rep. Steve Scalise will take the field despite having been […]

Tuesday in The Big Week

OK, It’s Tuesday in The Big Week. It is pretty cool to be here in the Piedmont. The skies are a pale blue, with strands of pale cirrus clouds way up there, and evidence that humans have done the pre-flight inspection, loaded a cargo of high-value stuff and some assorted people, and are already hurtling […]

Charlotte Works Magic

26 September 2021 Charlotte Works Magic …At Refuge Farm. The detritus of five or six moves was not stacked- but jammed in the garage. Charlotte is a recent widow, plucky lady, looking for work, and partnered with our Realtor Maggie to clean out #109 at Big Pink up in Arlington. When she moved more debris […]

Weekend Work

(Complex? This is an account fo what is in the smaller of the Infrastructure bills under discussion on the Hill today. You should see what is in the other one, but we don’t have a pie that large). We are in another crisis, which is no surprise. That seems to be the way things work […]

Lying Flat: Tuning in, Turning on and Dropping Out (in China)

From Refuge Farm, we are watching America having a train wreck. It is a curious thing that features some of the political theater that often accompanies change, particularly if it is change many people do not desire. There are things going on that challenge conventional wisdom. For Boomers, it is problematic. As kids, we saw […]