Rim of the Pacific   There is more than a hint of longing in my heart this morning. From lovely Pearl Harbor, the ships of nine navies are putting to sea, sliding down the narrow channel by Hospital Point and to the deep drop-off and into the open sea. It is the twenty-first iteration of […]

Straight Shooter New Yorker Photograph Of General Taguba by Mary Ellen Mark The Supreme Court about to make a decision on the Second Amendment to the Constitution today, and naturally I am a bit nervous. Every time the High Court goes to the cupboard and drags out the venerable document there is the chance that […]

Origins   The View from Custer Hill- K. F. Roahen, Billings, Mont. I could not get up this morning. The body periodically lets me down, and maybe it is a sign that the stress that has ruled my life for the last year or two is leaking out. I know that for months I was […]

  I was walking in London’s Portobello Road a couple years ago. It is the great flea-market of the Empire that was. A lovely day, bright and sunny, and I stopped at one of the shops to examine a commemorative mug emblazoned with the smiling face of Ian Smith, white leader of break-away Rhodesia. It […]

Some of us are living in the past these days. I know I have been. It is a treat to wander through the cultural wreckage of the American Century, and the long Cold War. It is hard though, since you have to make lunch and dinner in the present, and what lurks around the corner […]

Bien Dans sa Peau Comment le Pédé Va T’il?, Part Five Photo copyright Graham Cullimore, car Rebuilt by Frome 2CV I walked across Avenue Gabriel from the Embassy to do what the Captain told me to do. I was to wait for the French National Police to pick me up and brief me on the […]

My associate has had a variety of names in his official life. Let’s pick one for him now. “Associate” seems so cold and detached, though that is part of the business personal involvement can lead to attachments, which in turn can lead to bad decision-making.   Let’s call him “Tom,” since that links nicely to […]

SNAFU Comment le Pédé Va T’il?, Part Three At the end of 1952 in Washington, there was hope and despair and confusion. Fleet sailors knew the feeling, and they had a word for it: SNAFU. “Situation normal all f***ked up.” The new role of Washington fit the Republic like a ready-made suit in the wrong […]

Philipe Thyraud de Vosjoli, Chief of the SDECE   1952 in Washington.   The War years had transformed Washington from a sleepy southern town to the bustling center of a new world. While assigned to the Naval District Intelligence office at the Observatory, I had a room in the Kalorama neighborhood north of Dupont Circle, […]

Very truly yours, A.A. Christides U.S. Treasury Representative, Paris, France December 31, 1952   Good morning. The time-ball is still up, and I have time to start a story, though not complete it in this sitting. I got another long note from my associate who is retired now, and deep in the country. He is […]