By the time I finally got there, the gang at the Amen corner had already built up a pretty good head of steam. Sabrina got a new haircut and highlights and looked sharp. Old Jim was in his usual seat. Satchel was attempting- apparently successfully- to envelope one of the enormous corned beef sandwiches the […]

It was a gray and rainy Sunday with a pervasive chill that seemed to deny the impending change of season. I should have gone down to the garage and sorted through some stuff, but they said the cold rain would continue all through the day. The Russians had mentioned the possibility of going to the […]

  (The Bureau of Navigation, predecessor of the Bureau of Personnel, in its salad days. Arlington National Cemetery is behind the building. The Pentagon is off the frame to the lower right. Photo USN.) It will be Spring tomorrow, Dammit. It had better. It is gray and chill and spritzing this morning, not much different […]

It is two days before the official start of Spring and it is snowing in DC. I was daydreaming about warm places and getting rid of this lingering winter. Then reality intruded. The nice people on the BBC told me the number of dead pigs floating in the Huangpu river now exceeds 9,000. The river […]

Something complete! Damn, it has been a while. I attached the knotted bell-pull to the clapper on that chunk of heavy brass I have been dragging that bell around the world since 1968. Dad removed it from the fireplace mounting in a home we owned in suburban Detroit. It came to us in the purchase […]

(Willow took on a distinct Irish air last night. Photo Socotra.) I have tried to get out of Your Nation’s Capital on Fridays the last couple weeks. The farm is a comforting destination, and the level of stress in every sector of life inside the Beltway makes weekend flight irresistible. With the dysfunctional system gridlocked, […]

“Go ahead and laugh at Detroit, Because you are laughing at yourself.” – Reporter and Author Charlie LaDuff It has been a big week in Detroit, city of my birth, and a place once described as the ‘Paris of the American Midwest.’ Go ahead and laugh, like Charlie LaDuff told you to. My pal down […]

So, I am looking out the window of the office at the canyon below with the whizzing traffic on North Glebe and NPR broke the news out of Terry Gross’s show “Fresh Air” “White Smoke, White Smoke!” It reminded me of the 1MC call on the loudspeaker back on the ship. I kept working on […]

How many dead swine does it take to fill a Chinese river? That and other issues occupied my limited attention span as I padded out to the lap-top way too early. I can’t quite get the hang of the Daylight Savings change. It must be creeping fogey-ism. Thousands of pigs, apparently. A horrid thought. Glad […]

Vickie-the-Maid was getting her week together, and called to tell me to clean up the condo in preparation for her monthly ministry on Tuesday. You know the drill: when the maids are coming, it is time to actually pick up and organize the books plopped on the wing of the armchair, open face down, the […]