(Tex is triumphant over the new self-serve suds delivery device, known as “the Champagne Bucket.” The big government shut-down is affecting everything. I strolled into Willow after a day spent in the pursuit of moderation. I exercised moderately, getting my shirt off to capture the last rays of the season, and thought only moderately about […]

(Aftermath of the violent afternoon on Constitution Ave in Washington DC, 3 October, 2013.) Is it just me or is everyone a little nuts here in Washington? I was doing something constructive yesterday afternoon and was not plugged into the global information grid- or, better said- I just wasn’t paying any attention to it. I […]

(Tex shows off the new draft beer taps at Willow. This is a great day for the Republic. Photo Socotra.) It was a little after five, and we were at our places at the Amen Corner of the Willow Bar. “So, did you hear Tom Clancy is dead?” “Yeah. 66 years old, the son of […]

“Silvio Berlusconi has plunged Italy into another political crisis. It’s a wake-up call for Europe and a reminder that, despite what the recent German election campaign suggested, the euro crisis is by no means over yet.” – Gregor-Peter Schmitz writing in Der Spiegal WTOP’s class-enclosed nerve center (“Traffic and Weather on the Eights!”) was telling […]

(This is the image from the cover of the program for the Change of Command at the National Maritime Intelligence Integration Office and Office of Naval Intelligence. Sam explained why that was in his remarks: Naval Intelligence knew the fields from which the Kamikazes flew, provided the vectors to intercept them on their course toward […]

There is some nonsense happening back up inside the Beltway- I am listening to the traffic-and-weather-on-the-eights with a sense of schadenfruede this morning as the light spreads over Refuge Farm, deep in the heart of Culpeper. Not that I am going to escape the capital entirely this week- there is a ceremony in Maryland this […]

  Gentle Readers, The trees are on the verge of changing at Refuge Farm. We were huddled around the First Fire of Fall last night, terrified. The temperature on the deck had dropped, and the last salmon and chicken and steak morsel was being mopped up with good red wine. We were almost paralyzed by […]

(Hillbilly rockers Jumpin’ Jupiter belt it out in the courtyard next to Willow) I have been trying to get back to the fascinating article by a design engineer named Dennis Feucht. It seemed important at the time, and it is worth an examination to see what our pipsqueak impending nuclear-armed rivals are up to. The […]

(End of Summer, 2013, promo flyer for this evening’s festivities. Be there, or be square!) I was going to talk with you about what those whacky North Koreans are up to with their weapons of mass destruction this morning, but that is in the realm of speculative geo-politics. The whole Carrington Event thing is illustrative […]

I had a list of things that are making us run in circles this morning and was puzzling over which strand I might pull on. I got to critical point “H” and had not even drudged up “Benghazi,” when I decided that I was full enough of it, and decided to finish the repairs to […]