(The Citadel at Ankara, Turkey.) This has been a tumultuous week, hasn’t it? I don’t know about you, but between the loss of old friends and the impressive come-back of the San Francisco Giants to meet the Detroit Tigers tonight in Game One of the World Series my emotions have been whip-sawed quite effectively. I […]

Thank God. The Debates are over. Four of them, if you count the AAA-ball version of the Battle of the Veeps, Smokin’ Joe versus Paul Ryan. I made the mistake of clicking over from the ballgame to the debate last night once I got back from Willow. I was watching the St. Louis Cardinals unravel […]

(Poet Andrew Marvell). “The Grave’s a fine And private place. But none, I think, Do there embrace.” -Andrew Marvell, 1650 I fell asleep watching the Giants-Cards game last night. The brown chair seemed to reach around me and carry me to a private place of contemplation on the inside of my eyelids. It was a […]

(Mac Showers at the Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor this last June on the 70th Anniversary of the Battle of Midway). I did not know that the Tigers had swept the Yankees, a first for anyone against the titans in Pinstripes in 32 years. I rose at 0300 on Thursday morning to catch a connecting […]

(Justin Verlander on the mound. Photo NBC.) I am groggy and it is the Fall Fund Raiser on National Public Media, which is enough to make me irritated all by itself. It is my fault, the buck stops here and all that. I accept full responsibility in passive voice. Mistakes were made. I stayed up […]

(No debate about it, Justin Verlander is prepared to stare down his rivals and come out aggressive against the hated Yankees. Photo AP). The second debate is tonight. The President has been holed up in Virginia prepping for the encounter with the former Governor. That is precisely what I am thinking about doing- holing up […]

(Deck before. Work in progress. All photos Socotra.) I am down on the farm and the light is just coming up. The first truck and horse trailer did not rumble down the lane-and-a-half blacktop until nearly seven, dawn still minutes away. I contrast that to the morning in Arlington, and the difference is stark. Here […]

(Defending World Champ Cardinals celebrate the end of the Nationals pennant drive. AP Photo Nick Wass.) “The question of how baseball could be so cruel to this city may be answered some day. It existed in horrible form in the nation’s capital for decades, and then it vanished for 33 years. It came back gnarled […]

(Jayson Werth slams it out of National’s Park. Photo AP). Can’t do it this morning. Well, maybe I can, but there is so much I have to ignore that it makes me a little disoriented. Bear with me- I am sure you are inundated as well. I drove my younger boy and a buddy out […]

I suppose it is the passing of the icons in a life that marks the path we all travel, eventually. I have difficulty in thinking that the blazing blue eyes of Paul Newman grew rheumy, and are stilled by the ravages of lung cancer. He will be forever young in my mind, though I know […]