I had a chance to make a new friend yesterday, and things being the way they are, that is a good thing. There were some challenges getting together- the town does not look the way it did when Jinny and Jack lived here years ago, but we managed to locate one another and I drove […]

(USS Forrestal (CV-59) on her first Med deployment in 1957. Photo USN). They did it- sold her for scrap. The ignominy of the transaction- the price- is what got me. The famous warship and my former home- the First Supercarrier- was sold for a penny. Ex-USS Forrestal (CV-59) went for a sliver of copper amalgam: […]

The government is back at work, just like it never left, and the Fish and Wildlife crew were occupying the cocktail nook in force. Jon-without was standing next to Old Jim, who was sitting at the stool I normally occupy at the Willow. Some young guy- business suit- was sitting in Jim’s usual place. I […]

I wrote a piece this morning that was so compelling that I had to put it aside, and let it sit for a while. I doubt if it will get better: it is too dark by half. It is a challenge to live amongst this serial madness we call Washington and not let it start […]

(The entrance to The Jefferson Assisted Living Facility, 900 N. Taylor Street, Arlington, VA 22203). Nope. You can’t make me do it. I am not going to throw a grenade at the fiasco that is the roll-out of the Patient Protection- Affordable Care Act this morning. The President is going to reassure everyone later this […]

(The foliage is turning at the farm. I got the tractor out and did a last cut in preparation for the end of the growing season. Life is exceptionally good here. Photo Socotra.) I am at the farm this brilliant Fall morning. There is a rich crispness to the air; it is dense with the […]

(Piper Norm Weaver prepares to lead the head table to their places at the 47th Annual Naval Intelligence Dining In at Fort Meyer. Photo Socotra). I have 177 pictures from the NIP Luncheon yesterday and the 47th Dining In last night and not a lot of energy to edit and enhance them, but I am […]

I did not know if I was going to get through the day, but I am here, sort of, so I must have. The Tigers got in a hole early, and there was another squeaker on which they came out on the wrong side. One game away from elimination, and they have to take two […]

I was not going to go to Willow last night. I was going to spend a quiet evening and catch up on some reading and maybe an episode of “Breaking Bad,” which was highly recommended by people in a position to know such things. Frankly, though, the idea of starting five linear seasons of a […]

I saw Old Jim at Willow last night. In front of him at the apex of the Amen Corner was a brown Bud long-neck, a bucket with ice holding two more as reinforcement, and a triangle of a flat, foil-wrapped object. “Is it that pizza you were talking about last night?” He nodded. “Yep. It […]