(George Washington Plunkitt, late of the New York Legislature, and Tammany Hall. He was a master of practical politics). I didn’t think they could get me to do it, but they have. I am an intensely political beast, and I have always had a fondness for the rough-and-ready nature of the American political process, warts […]

27 March 2016 Mrs. Virginia “Jinny” Martin, 88, of natural causes at Rancho Santa Fe, CA. A friend wrote: “She was frail yet her passing was unexpected.” Born in February,1928, to Mr. and Mrs. Otis Wheeler of North Harmony Street in Medina, Jinny was proud of her heritage in the Buckeye State. Her ancestors included […]

March 27 2016 Life and Island Times Editor’s note: We are done with the account of the trip to The Hill, the secular temple to the constitutional Republic for which it stands. We may go back up there. It is time, on this holy day, to strike out with some bold new initiatives. Our pal […]

(The original monorail Congressional train. It is very cool, and sits in the underground junction of the Senate Russell office Building corridors, which used to the tunnel in which the train operated). It is Good Friday, and Easter is coming on. I wonder about what sort of basket my grandson is going to get, and […]

(Sergeant at Arms Frank Larkin, left, speaks to Jake at right while the humble scribe scribbles). Altogether an eye-opening morning with lots of information to process. The reason we were treated so well on The Hill was the active intervention of a former colleague who retired (finally!) from his career at the Agency, and fond […]

(Ernest Hemingway called la Floridita’s daquiri the best in the world. The legendary Havana bar uses: 2.5 jiggers of rum, six drops of maraschino liqueur, juice from half of a grapefruit and two Mexican limes). Nope- you think I am going to rail or fulminate about the First Family’s Palm Sunday arrival in Cuba? Or […]

(That really is St. Malo, a graceful town in Brittany composed of ramparts and tall stone houses and filled with ancient enmity for English invaders. It is the place of refuge for a locksmith from the National Museum in Paris against the ravages of the Nazi Occupation). So, I had planned on going down to […]

So, it is going to be Spring this weekend and we are going to get snow. Go figure. I am so over all this winter stuff. But Friday was a nice enough day, from what I saw of it out the window of my home office as email flew around all afternoon in a rising […]

I went over to The Front Page, as advertised, at four pm, sharp. The weather was teetering on the edge of being cold, and I was wearing just a t-shirt with the words “Drinks well with others” emblazoned on the front of the emerald green cotton fabric. I did not want to wear a jacket- […]

I am planning on walking to The Front Page this afternoon. It is only prudent. I am, above all things, a man of calculation. I tend not to go out on New Year’s Eve in my personal vehicle, for the obvious reason. The amateurs are out, too, and it is the best personal defense from […]