It hit ninety yesterday. I responded to the amazingly brief duration of the Spring- all of it apparently occurring during the period of my late confinement and greeted the summer in shorts and aloha shirt. I explored the bounds of what my body was going to permit. I found I could sit upright for hours […]

There may be something less interesting than one person’s encounter with the course of a bad case of flu. It doesn’t even interest me that much, and TMI about the matter does neither of us any favors. What does not destroy you, in my experience, anyway, does not necessarily make you stronger. I find it […]

Extended Family, Colleagues and Friends, With people getting ready to travel to Washington for Mac’s interment with full military honors at 1500 on Monday, 15 April, at Arlington National Cemetery, I thought I would get you an update on the schedule as I understand it. Usual practice is to muster at the Visitors Center at […]

(Elvis impersonators and other concerned citizens of Cyprus gather to support their government’s decision to confiscate private bank deposits. Photo Weekly Standard). Hey, I apologize. I have not been able to sit upright for a few days for any length of time, and consequently the production schedule slid to the right as rapidly as the […]

  (Washington DC in 1971, Mayday.) Old Jim established a beachhead at the Amen Corner and called me at the office to let me know that the bar was open for business. I glanced at the clock. I had another couple tasks to get through before I could shut things down, but I told him […]

(War Games on the Korean Peninsula. Image from the Patrick Cronan article “How This Starts” in Foreign Affairs magazine.) The internet ether is sizzling this morning. Several close friends checked in, mystified by what is happening on the Korean peninsula. It is predictable, actually normal in times of leadership transition, but the parallel changes in […]

(A freshly shorn Vic listens in amazement to Danny’s tale while Jon-Without talks to Australia. Photo Old Jim). Sequestration has not been implemented yet, and the system is already dysfunctional in anticipation of possible pain. Heck, I will give it real pain, since the inability to make any decisions actually is a decision of a […]

(It is just about time for patio seating at Willow. We are raring to go.) The crowd was pretty thin at the office on April Fool’s Day, and for a perfectly good reason. The First Pitch was being thrown on Opening Day at Nationals Park, and more than 45,000 Washingtonians figured that a blustery day […]

It may be April Fools Day, but I am not feeling particularly foolish this morning. I finally got to the Culpeper Clarion-Bugle in my brown chair late yesterday afternoon. It was a good day, all things considered, and I shared Easter dinner with Old Jim, Chanteuse Mary and Jon-Without at Willow, open on Sunday for […]

(A period lithograph of the Boston Tea Party. The Crown’s response to the riot provoked much activity by the Committees of Correspondence in the several Colonies. Something similar is now happening on the Internet by concerned citizens). I am sitting next to the window in the living room at Big Pink. I have been typing […]