High Noon The chair was too narrow, or maybe we are all just too big these days. The auditorium was jammed with concerned citizens in nice suits. We were there for a technical panel on the problem of processing different levels of classified information on government computer systems. The company that cracks the problem is […]

Going To Press It was a tough morning, as we have sometimes in the news business. The morning meeting can be a pressure cooker. Choices must be made, emphasis placed, nuance determined. This was a brutal meeting. The writers were tired. The Editor was cranky. The financial section was seething; ad revenues were down. It […]

Secular Sunday My Mother, bless her, asked if I was pulling for the Steelers or the Seahawks. I had to think for a moment. The Seattle Seahawks had beaten my Washington Redskins on their way to the Superbowl, but I had a hard time dredging up any particular animosity to them. And I like Seattle […]

It is nearly sixty degrees out there and raining. It is enough to make me go back to bed, thinking of the water splashing off the cars and the long wait on the 14th Street Bridge going down to the office. And why go to the office, anyway? They survived perfectly well the three days […]

Post Attack This morning I am drinking coffee again. I have not gone two days without caffeine since before the Wall came down. I don’t know if I should got to work or not, but I am restless and need to get out. There is a big meeting out at Tysons that I probably should […]

Now, Hear This I am not dying. I am pretty sure of that, though unfortunately, it is not necessarily a good thing. I’m not whining. Everybody gets sick at least once a winter, and with the kids grown, there is not the multiple colds and illness transferred home from school. But with what is abroad […]

I wish I had a little more absolutism in my bones. I am fine enough on the tactical level. I made my living with serene certainty planning the use of a variety of weapons systems, ranging from the novel to the horrifying. But I always had the sense that what I was doing had an […]

Sound and Fury The wind blew cold across the capital yesterday, bone chilling for those on foot. I was that, at least partly. I took the car down across the 14th Street Bridge and tucked it into the garage under the Bus Depot. Then I took a cab to the Hill, and through the metal […]

Cab Fare I happened to have cab fare on me, and that is how I found myself in a taxi, headed across Chinatown and past the great marble bulk of Union Station, headed for the Heritage Foundation. The conservative think-tank had decided to issue some recommendations to streamline the Homeland Security Department, and the office […]

Brother Al I heard last night that Brother Al died after a brief fight against pancreatic cancer.  He died at home, leaving two sons and a granddaughter.  He also left ex-wife Jeannie, was still a good friend. Al was like that. He was one of the old Brothers at the Fraternity House. I will always […]