There was more damage than expected from the quake yesterday. Most of you felt it, as the rumble emanated from a point three miles under the tiny village of Mineral, Virginia. The tip of the Washington Monument has cracks, and some of the spires of the National Cathedral snapped off an plunged to the well-manicured […]

We have a hurricane coming this way. Doesn’t look like we will get smacked, though the Carolinas should not be so sanguine about their prospects. We will get soaked, though, and that is not so bad a prospect, though it will make the last days at poolside problematic. I was happy to get a decent […]

Morning, Gentle Readers! It is one of those Mondays for which there was no preceding day of rest- a flash-back to the old Pentagon Friday greeting that went: “Have a great weekend; only two working days to Monday!” On this particular Monday, our friendly government customer has scheduled two technical briefs on prospective bits of […]

I picked up my date for the service only a few minutes late. I did not want to keep him waiting, but had to stop by the office to retrieve the phone I had left next to the keyboard when I fled the office on Friday. My date was Mac- he is still a little […]

I am bustling around trying to get organized for the memorial service, since I have confirmation that my 91-year-old-date will be ready for pick up at his residence over in Ballston at 12:45. The man we will memorialize was blown up in an IED attack in Iraq last year and struggled with PTSD since returning. […]

Admiral Mac drove over to the Willow in his golden Jaguar- first trip out since he took ill earlier in the summer. We agreed to meet and resume our informal discussions of the latter part of his time in the Navy, and specifically the events that surrounded the capture of the USS Pueblo and his […]

(Pandora’s Box missile launch system. ) It was the best of times and the worst of times…wait a minute; that has been used someplace. Let me try it a different way. It was a good day tinged with the sepia of coming change. Someone said it had been the best day of the Washington summer, […]

Sorry about the hacking yesterday. Don’t click on links. We will see if I have to shut this account down. Change your passwords frequently. Take your castor oil. Eat your peas. I was going to tell you about Doc’s battle with the implacable government today, but we lost another hero. It is purely coincidence that […]

(Willow warm Guerierre Cheese Puffs. Photo Socotra.) “You would have to blame Bush, you know?” I looked with envy at the warm Guerrierre cheese puffs pastries on the Willow Bar. Old Jim, his brother-in-law Nick and his long-suffering bride Mary were seated up the mahogany from me, and making a dinner off the $5 neighborhood […]

(T. Boone Pickens in the doorway of his ranch. Photo Pickens Army.) “A fool with a plan is better than a genius with no plan, and we look like fools without a plan.” -Mesa Oil founder, billionaire and unlikely environmental activist T. Boone Pickens Ack, it’s Monday. Hate it. I looked back on the weekend […]