I can hear the Czech lifeguard moving pool furniture around, when the din of the big motorcycles out of Route 50 diminishes with the cycle of the traffic lights. I looked down from the balcony, and discovered it is Pavel, returning to Big Pink from Medical School in Prague. It is unusual to get a […]

Line Crossing Ceremony, USS Midway, Indian Ocean, 1979 When we crossed the line the first time it was a big deal. Of course you could opt out of the ritual; this was a kinder and friendlier Navy, and I imagine there were some who huddled alone in their bunks to avoid it. Most of the […]

I had been on a fool’s errand, me being the fool. I was working on a project that will mature in 2008, after the current unpleasantness overseas, and forgot I was living in the present. I tried to get from Big Pink to one of the shining towers in Bethesda to make a late meeting, […]

When I went down to the sea, I went as an office worker. The ships in which I sailed were enormous mobile airfields, which is a remarkable capability that Odysseus would have admired. Out in the wide ocean, there was remarkable feeling of solitude when flight operations were secured and the lights of the escorts […]

The big air show was held at Andrews Air Force Base over the weekend. Military jets from all over where in town for demonstration flights, and the aircraft the taxpayers purchase were on static display. The Air Force Demonstration Team was here, too, The Thunderbirds. There were public safety messages on the radio to notify […]

There ought to be a Safety Center for politicians, wouldn’t you agree? There is for the people who fly airplanes. It would be a place where records of all the peccadilloes could be kept, and a newsletter issued to office holders, just like there is for pilots. There could be a comic character to soften […]

I have tried to stay away from the very public disintegration of Paul Wolfowitz for the last few weeks. I hate to watch the slow-motion disintegration of public figures. Oh, hell, that is not true. I love it like everyone else. Otherwise, there would be no Britney Spears or Mike Tyson.   I suppose if I […]

  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 […]