(Iranian militants storm the US Embassy in Tehran, Nov. 4th, 1979. In years previous, the Marine Guard in Santo Domingo stood off violent protesters and were awarded medals. In Tehran, they were directed to stand down. Image courtesy Getty Images. Right reserved). In the parallel universe of CV-41, steaming post haste for the North Arabian […]

(FITRON ONE FIVE ONEF-4 Phantom 2 goes aviating off the pointy end of Midway-Maru (CV-41) Photo USN). So, I readily acknowledge that this is going to be a little schitzo, but if you have been around The Daily for a while you are probably used to it. This is a bit like a novel I […]

(USS Ranger (CV-61) bow the morning after the collision in the Straits of Malacca. US Navy image). OK- so out of left field comes this request to talk about the whole Nick Danger thing. It was the first book I ever inadvertently wrote, and it was a long time ago, more than 35 years as […]

(Rep. Shelley Berkley (D-NV) takes a bite at the Annual Hot Dog Day Lunch in the courtyard of the Rayburn House Office Building July 23. The event draws hundreds of people from Capitol Hill, including members of Congress, their staffs, journalists and lobbyists and possibly a couple honest Americans. Image courtesy Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images North […]

(Natasha has brought the green thumb of Yalta in the fertile Crimea to the fields of Culpeper County. This basket she kindly game me includes corn, potatoes, cucumbers, tart pickles and dill from her garden. It is magnificent). I am torn between the desire to crank out a story about our worthless government, terrorists, the […]

(Wartime image of Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger, Comte de Saint Exupéry, in front of his P-38 Lightning fighter. Born in Lyons, France, in 1900, he learned to fly when he was twelve and became an adventurer in the French colonial empire and an aviation pioneer. He was awarded the Prix Femina for his book “Night […]

It was a hundred degrees outside, first of those squishy humid days here by the placid Potomac. Jiggs played golf down in southern Maryland- I didn’t attempt anything so rash after the Burger Bash in Rosslyn on Saturday. I contented myself with periodic plunges in the glittering blue waters of the pool where our Polish […]

(Team Willow. Clockwise from lower right, owner and executive chef Tracey O’Grady and assistant, Official Logo of the 2015 BRGR Bash; Legendary chef Robert, now of Tonic downtown; Brian Wolken and assistant; Heather Small and lower center, award winning Burger Bash champions with house made Tater Tots. Photos Socotra). I don’t normally have a burger […]

I don’t know how you are handling the week. I am not doing that well. I am challenged by another mass shooting by some whack-job, the fact that our Armed Forces are actually should be called the Dis-armed Forces, and that the lead story about the massacre in the NY Times is about the concern […]

Thought you’d escaped, eh? No chance, Buckaroos. I have been trying to distract myself of late, and climb into the Time Machine and bounce around some intimate American history to distract myself from the events of the day. I am not even going to get started on them, because then I couldn’t finish the litany. […]