What the Postman Brings (Gladys Horton as a teen. Photo Getty Images.)   I would rather think about the musical legacy of Gladys Horton, the lead singer of the Marvelettes who charted the first of the MoTown hits when I was just beginning to think about things beyond my grade school, and who made Detroit […]

I have had something for a month or so, sudden nagging bouts of vertigo. If I move too rapidly, or hang my head at an awkward angle, the dizziness rises and I have to clutch something solid to get my bearings back. I suspect a minor inner ear infection or something, but it has not […]

You have to peel back the onion carefully on this mess we are in. I was hoping to get some insight into it last night, and got only a glimmer. There are great currents running in the public life, on broadcast and simmering on the web. One of my professional groups in cyberland is melting […]

(Segment of Grand Dad’s Trans-Isthmian Duplex Cable, circa AD 1914. Photo Socotra.)   “We could Hold Panama City for fourty-eight hours” (Torrijos) told me. “As for the Canal, it is easy to sabotage. Blow a hole in the Gatun Dam and the Canal will drain into the Atlantic. It will only take a few days […]

(The star of DESERT STORM- the F-117 NIGHT HAWK.) The flag that flew in the chill winter breeze from the balcony at Big Pink had flown on the roof of the Capitol on Kuwait Day, 1991, the deadline President Bush set for Saddam to take his legions home. It is a little faded, since I […]

(DVD cover for the epic film Battle on Shangganling Mountain. Photo YesAsia.) If anyone thought this whole rising China thing was going to be easy, or fair, let’s just disabuse ourselves of the notion. The arrogance of Imperial Britain, and later followed by the less-structured and well-intentioned international meddling of the Americans, is going to […]

(Wind Farm in the Pacific Ocean. Photo LA Times.) The conventional wisdom about what is going on in the wide world continues to chug along. I was going to talk about Adrian Lamo this morning, the third individual who played a major role in the WikiLeaks carnival. Young Adrian has been called a “snitch, a […]

It was Third Thursday yesterday, and the weather was supposed to be bad. The reports were ominous all day. I looked at the schedule on the computer. The monthly soiree at the Capital City Brewery had died a natural death last summer. We picked the venue back when the Pentagon was still central to our […]

I have an eight o’clock in town and left my car at the office for reasons I will either get to, or not, later. I forgot about the meeting until an icy thought pierced me a couple minutes ago like a cold shock to my adrenal system. Accordingly, I have no time to think. I […]

(JacksonBrown out on bail. Photo Bill Kostroun/Associated Press.) I opened up the mail this morning with that familiar feeling of dread. I had sent an intemperate note after getting back from Willow that felt good at the time but was too cleaver by half. It is the trap of wine; there may be veritas in […]