(Boxing Day in London, 1836. Steel etching from The Spectator.) Magnificent to irritating is how I would chalk up Christmas Day. The baroque feel of the celebration was fully conveyed with a traditional dinner of turkey and all the trimmings and sides down with Jiggs and Ludmilla, with a nog or two and some fine […]

Christmas is a bit besieged, as I am sure you are aware. In our national compulsion to avoid making anyone feel uncomfortable, we have witnessed our institutions insist on exchanging “holiday” greetings. I certainly don’t want to offend anyone, goodness knows, and I thought about that as I downed an astonishing egg-nog that Brett whipped […]

  (Mikhail Kalashnikov as a young soldier-engineer). ‘Где коза привязана, там она должна пасти’ (Where the goat is tied, there she must graze) -Mikhail Kalashnikov, quoting an old Russian proverb on the ambiguity of his greatest accomplishment. Well, it is at hand. The Capital is quiet; no point in monitoring “Traffic and Weather on the […]

There is nothing particularly interesting about cleaning out the garage. I mean, maybe fascinating to me, but a lack of general interest. Sorry. I don’t have to sign up for health Care today- or at least I don’t think so- and will suspend concern until we see what happens in the New Year. I am […]

  (The Arlington Methodist Tree at home in Culpeper with cheery lights). It is 72 degrees and quite unseasonable for the first day of Winter at Refuge Farm. I feel merry enough, but quite disconnected from the season. Was just last weekend I was chipping ice off the porch, concerned I might slip and rocket […]

Old Jim called me as I was trying to get topics outlined for some uplifting pre-holiday thoughts. The phone was buried in my back-back, and I had to burrow around for a while before I got to it, just in the nick of time before it rolled over to “missed call.” “Yes, Jim,” I said. […]

“You don’t know what you got, till it’s gone.” – – Joni Mitchell, “Big Yellow Taxi.” You know, if you miss a news cycle these days, you may as well be sorting through the rubbish heap of ancient times. I was coming back from a get-together with some former colleagues out in the still-sprouting exurbs […]

(Elf Tiffany holds court at World of Beer. Photo Socotra). OK- trust me, I am not going to try to understand even the Executive Summary of the recommendations of the Presidential Panel on reviewing what is happening at NSA. Can’t do it, not with all the elves running around. There is something equally strange in […]

I was going to write about deviled eggs this morning and do sort of a pre-holiday public service for all those celebrations we are going to have. I sat down at the computer about five hours ago, and have gotten exactly nowhere. I am not quite sure how things got out of control. Is it […]

(L-R: Vic, The Lovely Bea (TLB) , Old Jim, Jon-without, and Chanteuse Mary at the feast thrown by TLB. Photo un-Plaic Jamie.) Sure, there are some daunting problems confronting us this holiday season. Whatever that health thing is, a stagnant economy, sustained underemployment, out of control spending, implacable enemies overseas and all that stuff. Plus […]