When the flashes come in the sky and there is no sound to go with them, we used to shrug and call it “heat lightning.” Growing up in Michigan, the thunderstorms would roll in from the Big Lakes, and it was not uncommon to have the night sky light up, silent as the winter […]

Grand Plaza of the Building Museum, Washington, DC   It has been a hell of a week. The claws of the storm raked the trees of leafy Arlington, and behind the rake comes the air from the Gulf, and the first heat warning of the year. One Hundred and Five today, they say breathlessly, fiery […]

Big Ugly Fat Fellow* (BUFF) with Air-launched Cruise Missiles   I don’t think the term “D-Day” meant anything specific. “D” probably just meant the notional day you were going to do something, a point of reference for planning. In the case of June 6, 1944, the decision was about hopping the Channel and invading Europe […]

Woman Watches Clinton Staff Depart the Virginia National Headquarters 04 June 2008- photo Vic Socotra   The Wings won the cup last night- but I did not know it until this morning. We lost power at three-thirty when the first of the big thunder-bumpers came roaring through. The sudden ferocity pummeled the sides of the […]

Senator Obama at Wesleyan University (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)   Thank God it is over. We have been dragged all over the United States in every one of its manifestations, Lower 48, Alaska, Hawaii, state, commonwealth and territory. Yesterday the valiant voters of Montana and North Dakota trudged to the polls, produced a split decision, and ended it.   […]

Master-Chief-Doctor-Senator the Hon. John Tower   If you like hockey, the news was good, since this was good hockey. The Red Wings put 58 shots against Marc-Andre Fleury in the crease, and came up with only three goals. I was on my feet with thirty seconds to go in regulation, Wings up by one, when […]

Severe thunderstorms came through in the early afternoon and sharply demarcated the day. Mother Nature has an immediacy that is compelling when she sends rainwater flooding though the open windows.   There are hundreds without power, but not us. The storm only made the top two Big Pink events. The first was personal and immediate. […]

  I was going to tell you about being summoned to the dark-paneled Senate office where John McCain first got the Congressional bug.   I’ll get to that eventually, but I have a meeting this busy Saturday, and was processing the daily mail when I received a note from a pal who is traveling west […]

The Times this morning raked over John McCain’s time as a Navy legislative liaison officer in the US Senate. I was not sure what to make of it. It seemed to suggest that the sacrifice of CAPT McCain’s probable promotion to Admiral was a demonstration of some dark ambition. The author mentioned that there was […]

It was a tough call. Wings vs. Penguins, Game Three. The pool vs. exercise. The Condominium Board vs. Residents at the meeting.   The last item would have been a colossal loser in ordinary times, something I read about on the bulletin board on the short elevator trip to the fourth floor. Unfortunately, Mrs. Hitler […]