(Culpeper Minutemen Flag)   I took my thermos-cup of coffee and lit up a Luckie as I walked out of my gravel driveway onto the narrow black-top of the farm lane. The stones crunched under my sneakers. The sky was blue and the temperature just on the verge of sweater weather.   I was wearing […]

(Country Auction, by Aldro Thompson Hibbard)   I ran across an American Mystery last weekend that struck me hard. It seemed to convey the impact of the passing of the season and more. It made me think as I unpacked the mesh carry-bag from the pool from the last time.   iPod, sunglasses, spare lighter, […]

(Last Cannonball of Summer)   Don’t believe your calendar. Summer died, officially, at 8:07 pm last night.   She did not pass away quietly, leaving with raucous shouting. The Gang that assembled was fully prepared to carry on her post-mortem right into the wake, and I must say that when she died, Summer of 2009 […]

(Intrepid Historical Detective Negotiates the Mud of Building 19)   There are good days and bad, we all have them.   As bad as things get, I had to wince this morning. I do not believe I have experienced anything as surreal as North Carolina populist tort lawyer, Senator, and Presidential candidate John Edwards had. […]

(Graves 276-281, Potters Field, Blue Plains, Washington, DC) It is the end of the week, and I was reminded at the bar last night that this story has been all over the map. Part of it is dry recitation of fact, part of it is action adventure and part was heading for a noir detective […]

(Maddy on Richard Quirin’s Grave)   I’ll explain all this tomorrow, I swear. But I am still crackling with adreniline, and this part is not embroidered or tall tale.   The names, of course, have been changed to protect the guilty.   We dined at the Officer’s Club at Bolling Air Force Base. It is […]

Blue Plains Drive tees out at the Boss Shepherd Parkway, which is a grand name for a concrete two-lane that ends in Jersey barriers at the DC Impound Lot.   I slowed for the left turn as we passed DC Village on the left, and the gigantic banana palm trees waved listlessly in the humid […]

(A view of the Capital from St. Elizabeth’s Hospital)   Maddie was in the right seat of the Bluesmobile and Colonel Mike Grafton was keeping a wary eye out the back.   The car bumped over broken concrete by the old Hospital as we went down to the DC Impound Lot, hoping there was a […]

(Official Logo of the Washington Metro System) The remarkable thing about the recent renaissance of Washington is that Mayor-for-life Marion Barry is still part of it, just as much as J. Edgar Hoover was part of the great downfall.   Former Mayor Barry is the Councilman representing Ward 8, which includes the grounds of the […]

(Map of Blue Plains, Extreme SE Washington DC) The revelation came to me on the road up from Brandy Station. It had been building as I poured over the disconnected bits of information in the files about the Nazis, and why now, suddenly, the appearance of the wannebe-National Socialists a couple decades ago, and their […]