Cotton is High A third of the way through the last, best month of summer. If we grew cotton here, it would be high. It isn’t some places. The draught is on some of the land and down south the wet is stripping the soil away. These are crazy times, and sometimes I feel I […]

Night Trippers Dr. John was laid to rest under a star in Juba this morning. The city is the capital of South Sudan , and the good Doctor’s troops never quite managed to capture it in his 21 year struggle. But now it seems as though he has, in a way, lying under the star […]

Kokura’s Luck The earth is turning across the dateline and the anniversary of the day has already happened in Hiroshima . It is another round number, sixty this time, since the sleek B-29 named after the pilot’s mother arrived in the morning sky. The mayor of the city called for the nuclear powers to abandon […]

Grapevine The President made his announcement on Prince Spaghetti Day down in a place called Grapevine, Texas . I assume that is near Crawford, where the ranch is. He is starting his five-week vacation, and I am pleased he has found a little time to get away from the stress here in town. August is […]

Convenient Crashes They are going to bury King Fahd of Saudi Arabia in an unmarked grave in the Kingdom today. It will be a humble rite in keeping with his fierce faith. Ronald Reagan traveled about in grand style after his passing, but the other People of the Book seem to place more emphasis on getting […]

Recess I opened up my copy of The Hill newspaper this morning to see what events were going to shape my week. I am very reactive in my planning, since there are so many things going on I have to cherry-pick activities. I am still reeling a bit from the amount of legislation that was […]

Rangers My Uncle was in the prime of life when one of his projects hit the news. It was 1964, at the end of July, when the press conference was held. He must have been in his late 50’s, not much different than I am now. Only smarter, of course, and still at the zenith […]

Newark I watched the lush greenness of the state of New Jersey roll by a variety of windows yesterday. It was a day of looking out windows. The first was from the Metroliner, square cars pulled by a boxy old engine. Amtrak had to scour the country for trains like these to put on the lucrative route up the […]

Broad Support (and a Lot of Money) It has been a big week. A major Terrorist organization declared itself out of business and we launched a Space Shuttle that we might not be able to get back down. These are interesting times indeed. I am walking out the door to catch a train to New […]

Shooting Rockets The radio chirped on my desk at the Bus Station and told me that the storms would begin arriving just after lunch. The nice lady told me they would pound us until long after old bureaucrats would be in bed, or dozing in their armchairs. My office window looks down on the covered courtyard, […]