(Animation Domination cartoon master Seth Macfraland. Photo Fox) So, the monsoon came after I got back to the Beltway from the farm. So far, so good. I made the best of things in the pre-dawn and listened to the rain and reviewed the continuing crisis in Syria, which has now spread full-blown to quasi-Europe and […]

It is hot, sultry and sunny, filled with the roar of the cicadas and the mirth of 7-year-old Sasha, the Russian Princess. But let me get to that in a minute. It was a relief to get away from the traffic and commotion of the Imperial City. It was jammed at the usual place, the […]

(Jon-without, Jerry the Barrister, Vic and Heather’s hand. That is Tracey O’Grady’s special in the foreground- a very large sandwich. Photo Jamie) It was the last Friday of the month, and people flocked to Willow as soon as they could get away from their offices. Tracey was doing her Buffalo Wild Wings Theme special of […]

(The venerable F9F Panther flown by a Sierra Hotel Naval Aviator- just ask him- in the early 1960s. Photo USN). Steve Canyon is in town, and rang me up to see if we could get together and talk something over. I agreed, since Steve is one of my favorite shipmates, from the time I met […]

It is getting too late in the morning to launch into any polemics. I wrote the Red Wings off a couple weeks ago, so I should not be surprised that they fell to the Blackhawks last night in OT. Crap. Several associates announced they would not be watching due to blood pressure issues, and I […]

My alert reader in the Shenandoah Valley forwarded a link to an earnest practitioner of the art of herbal cultivation in response to some musings about the uses for the only crop I seem to be bringing in this year at Refuge Farm. Another reader enjoys dandelion tea. Life is good some places, though I […]

(One of the Ford F-250s headed north from Lake Ana on Virginia Rt 29 after the holiday.) The Holiday is over and the Red Wings could not put away the top-seeded Blackhawks last night, but damn, there was a lot of activity crammed into three calendar days. Motorcycles on Sunday, and the Great Rolling Thunder […]

The 26th annual Rolling Thunder rally brought motorbike enthusiasts out in their thousands. The gathering of riders in Washington D.C. aims to help turn the spotlight on the plight of military prisoners of war. It’s also intended to focus attention on troops missing in action. The bikers assembled in a parking lot at the Pentagon […]

(The Big Pink Pool Gate is open and the season has begun. Photo Socotra.) It is strange writing about Up There, when I am down here on the farm, with the big F-250 pick-up trucks rumbling down the farm lane early for the horse event at Rosemary’s Summerduck Run Farm just up the road. Damn, […]

I have to say that this is a novel time to be alive, wouldn’t you agree? I don’t know which of the seasons of our lives can be stranger, or how the ever-rising generations look at the times in which they live. Terrorism as a concept is not as scary as the notion that we […]