Pottery Barn I don’t have anything burning off my fingertips this morning; goodness knows I should be concentrating on Judge Alito’s confirmation, or the bird flu, or how to defeat improvised explosive devices. I can’t do it, though. I am concentrated on the little things, and am prepared to let the larger world spin on […]

The Minister of Meaning I forgot that S amuel Ichiye Hayakawa was born in Vancouver, Canada, and I forgot that he was elected to the United States Senate. I remember that he liked jazz, and that he was President of San Francisco State College, and that he was one of the few who spoke with […]

Small Fish I got it backwards, and as it turned out, the right way. If I had been watching Pappa Joe’s Penn State finally win a triple-overtime contest over Bobby Bowden’s Seminole’s in the Orange Bowl, I would have heard that the trapped miners in West Virginia were rescued. I assume that good news was […]

Quiet Week The quiet week is over, or at least the quiet here in Arlington . The affairs of the world have continued as we boxed up the decorations. I got the willies when I heard about the miners trapped a mile underground in West Virginia . I thought of all that dirt and rock […]

Both Hands Tied “Muslim Scholars Paid to Aid U.S. !” shouts the headline in the Times this morning. My goodness, I thought. Headlines shouldn’t shout . They should just Bold themselves. And besides, if you are attempting to fight an implacable foe without using every trick in the book, wouldn’t you be fighting with your […]

First Day Ah! The delicious scent of morning in a fresh new year, barely out of the package! The coffee smells richer on the first day, and everything is filled with promise. I am weary of the last few weeks of looking back. I can’t take that load of old clothes to the Goodwill yesterday and […]

Singularity I am confused, but I maintain it is not my fault. It is the press of events, the acceleration of the Holidays. The festive days fall on the Weekends this cycle, and it is Saturday that is the last day of a very strange year. Tomorrow should be the day for stillness and hangover recovery, […]

A Dry Martini “I like to have a martini; Two at the very most; After three I’m under the table; After four I’m under my host.” -Dorothy Parker The dark lobby bar was filled with holiday merrymakers. Elegant wood paneling crept tree-quarters of the way up to the high ceiling. An odd mural of Asian […]

Resolution I had a feeling that Michigan was going to go down to Nebraska in the Alamo Bowl, and looking at the clock, realized the unhappy event would not be until well after eleven. My boys did not appear to have the resolution to win the contest. I was surprised to find that I was […]

Inflection Point Somewhere in the sprawling vastness of Manhattan , Christopher “Ryan” Henry, the OSD Principle Deputy Undersecretary for Policy, was addressing an exclusive gathering of senior executives from the private sector. I was in Mid-town at that very moment, walking from Penn Station up 7 th Avenue toward the Algonquin Hotel. I was in […]