(In West Kreuzberg. Photo Socotra)   It was an awful flight from Dulles. You know the drill by now. We were delayed, sardine-can packed in the back of the Lufthansa B-747 for much longer than planned.   It was the damned plume out of that unpronounceable volcano in Iceland, of course. The First Officer told […]

  (Colorful remaining section of the Berlin Wall)   “Die Mauer wird in 50 und auch in 100 Jahren noch bestehen bleiben, wenn die dazu vorhandenen Gründe noch nicht beseitigt sind”   “The Wall will be standing in 50 and even in 100 years, if the reasons for it are not yet removed.” – Erich […]

(Lufthansa B747-400 (D-ABTB), originally uploaded by jonsey737.) I think they are really going to kill Jack. Everyone else is getting killed, some by Jack himself. So I presume last night’s episode is getting to the end of the television show “24,” which has run the distance of the War on Terror so far.   We […]

(Renowned actor and activist Alex Baldwin. Photo courtesy Access Hollywood) “First, it’s always a treat to be someplace other than Washington, D.C. – the only place where, as I like to say, you can see a prominent person walking down lover’s lane holding his own hand.” – Remarks by SECDEF Robert Gates at the Eisenhower […]

(Renowned actor and activist Alex Baldwin. Photo courtesy Access Hollywood) “First, it’s always a treat to be someplace other than Washington, D.C. – the only place where, as I like to say, you can see a prominent person walking down lover’s lane holding his own hand.” – Remarks by SECDEF Robert Gates at the Eisenhower […]

(Winning Norwegian Meat Protein Platter from the 2009 Bocuse D’or)   It was a thoroughly Willow week, and generally speaking, a good one.   The weather was on the cool side but sunny and breezy. Pleasant, after a brief swelter that prompted Leo, Big Pink’s resident Engineer to kick in the chill water feed and […]

Microsoft Office was finishing me off late in the day. I was peering at the screen, trying to figure out why no one was responding to the urgent notes I was sending, and realized the stupid program had defaulted to “offline” status.   All the information I tried to convey to my colleagues was clogged […]

(Willow’s Icon. Photo From Willow) Life is pretty good. Looking down on the Big Pink pool, things are ready for the season. The ladders are up, the water level is full, and the only thing missing is the new pool furniture, which the Board says will be in place for opening day.   I am […]

  (French King Henry III ‘s “L’Ordre du Saint-Esprit.” Hung from a blue ribbon or “un cordon bleu” it became associated with the lavish and decadent feasts held by the Order. Photo Le Cordon Blue)   Pool Czar Peter was stalking around the deck of the pool late yesterday when I strolled in from a […]

The title of the book is a little florid for my taste, though I certainly appreciate the value of a good blade, be it on an instrument as long as your arm, or something better suited for the satisfying clean plunge through a tomato.   I would tell you about the expensive plastic part that […]