The invitation to dinner came unexpectedly in the morning e-mail, almost as if the company had risen that morning and realized that we were here. Of course it wasn’t the case, since this had been a quarterly affair, long scheduled.   Paul had flown in from the States the day before and lain comatose […]

Like you, I do most of my banking on line. When the postage went up two cents this week for a first-class letter, I shrugged, resolving to get some stamps, sometime, for the odd litter or contribution I still do by mail. I should know better, since one of my last jobs in government was […]

The train was rusting to the track, last time I saw it. It was a sunny day on the wrong side of the Imjun River, the awkward bulge north of the stream where the fighting stopped. It was pretty clear that if the Northerners decided to come south again, this was going to be uninhabitable […]

Jerry Falwell may not jump out at you in the context of the divestiture of the hulk of the Chrysler Corporation, but I like to think of him driving on the four-lane to heaven on of those old Imperials with the push-button gearshifts and the monster hemi V-eight engine. It is not that far a […]

They say it is going to get hot this afternoon, spiking up to the eighties. I think there is a case for breaking out a poplin suit for the meeting out in Fairfax, or maybe the venerable seersucker. Of course, it could rain. I will have to stay connected to the radio for crucial breaking […]

Mullah Dadullah is dead, and that is a good thing. His corpse was on display for the journalists over the weekend, his thick beard making him look a little like Che, laid out in Bolivia forty years ago. Che was a loser in asymmetric warfare. Insurgent struggles can succeed against overwhelmingly superior military forces if […]

I downed the morning coffee with the new knowledge that three American soldiers are missing south of Baghdad, and the incorrigible North Koreans have unveiled another missile, based on knock-off technology from the Soviet past. I scowled over the paper, since it is also Mother’s Day. Some historians say has roots in the ancient Goddess […]

I fell asleep in the brown chair last night. I had just come in from the balcony over the pool at Big Pink, surveying my domain with satisfaction. The trees have filled in nicely, and there are no prying eyes from the units that encircle the south side of the pool. I sat down in […]

I asked my mother one time what the toughest age to deal with was, kid-wise. I think we were still in the sleep deprivation phase of parenthood, the insistent little beings still inarticulate, and able to express their needs only with loud piercing urgency. Mom is a saint, but she rattled me effectively when she […]

Apogee and Perigee are terms are most commonly used in literature to describe high and low points, exhilaration and despair, respectively, but those that deal with orbital mechanics and the properties of space vehicles know they are just the high and low points in a recurring circle around the earth. Tony Blair, for example, is […]