Sundays at Socotra House are always a little unsettled between the breakfast pass through the Galley for a light wake-me-up before attending to holy services or a quick morning work-out at the Gym in the building Mezzanine. That meant the morning production meeting was segmented by who was munching, sipping Flat Yank coffee or leaving […]

This week, President Donald Trump and SECWAR Hegseth put on a double team effort to highlight shortfalls in America’s defense- budget, one of nine still unfunded and which could cause a shut-down in three weeks. Wait, Is that ‘defense’ or actually the ‘WAR” budget? The routine news from the Hill this morning highlights what is […]

(This is the General Dynamics sales brochure of their new ballistic missile submarine. It is a pricey beast, with a dealer tag of nearly $9 billion—nearly the amount of fraud found so far in the Minnesota day care system. But check the subtitles: it is a diligent handmaiden—guarding against the fires of hell while retaining […]

We spent the beginning of lunch with the Governor of Minnesota. It had been an interesting morning filled with angry white women and former Vice Presidential candidates. The discussion was animated ad filled with the imagery of N utomobilie being put into “drive” and striking a Federal Law Enforcement officer. As a group, we took […]

That sentiment was expressed as an urban planning tool that showed up a split-generation ago. It held that modern living should be oriented toward neighborhoods that hold everything necessary within a fifteen-minute walk, or a scooter ride. They had commenced putting three-and-four story vertical additions on some of the little Cape Cod houses purchased for […]

This is Red Square as it was in late summer of 1998, the last time any of us were there in person. We are running it this morning with a sense of loss, since we are 13 time zones away from Pyongyang, North Korea. We were playing with some of the images from the trip […]

That was the difference between this bed and the one back home. Not a theory. Not a metaphor. Just arithmetic. In Fairfax, the Trillium would be quiet now. Thermostat cycling. Coffee not yet made. The day still folded neatly ahead of itself. Here, the day had already been opened, inspected, and set in motion before […]

We got a got a note from a shipmate in Japan about the time we were wrestling the new bookcase in next to the recliner Miles has been using in an attempt to get the new year started in proper fashion. That is normally in keeping with the oriental signs of the Zodiac for all […]

Should Old Acquaintance be forgot, and never thought upon; The flames of Love extinguished, and fully past and gone: Is thy sweet Heart now grown so cold, that loving Breast of thine; That thou canst never once reflect On Old long syne. CHORUS: On Old long syne my Jo, On Old long syne, That thou […]

Miles was back this morning, determined not to let the last day of this bedraggled year slip away without at least a brush of irony and a wave in the rear-view. It may explain why the entertainment channels that had occupied the big screen at the end of the Conference Room at Socotra House were […]