Turning Up the Heat It was the beginning of a heat wave, a mass of sultry air that oozed across the Blue Ridge and gathered us up in a moist embrace. Moisture condensed on the inside of the windows at Big Pink, and air conditioning was turned up all over the area. The engineers at […]

Gravity An effective swing of the polo mallet requires a partnership with gravity. You can jerk it around, fight the natural process, but that wastes energy. I was gaining an appreciation for that in horse country. The afternoon light was remarkable, lighting the hills of Faquier County in emerald. The breeze was fresh and the […]

Think Big A weird tango rhythm is going through my mind this morning, since that is what I was listening to at the Argentine Embassy last night, a fundraiser on a sweltering night just off Dupont Circle . The featured dancer was a woman of intense dark aspect. She wore a black dress with straps […]

Westy I was surprised at the way the ball came off the bat, considering the moist weight of the air. Not many balls make it to the upper mezzanine at RFK stadium. Armas was the starting pitcher for the Nationals, and he seemed to have some remarkable spin on the ball. As the ball continued […]

The Aristocrats It was almost too hot to sit by the pool yesterday. I think it is the first heat alert of the year. The heat index will be over 100 degrees through today and into tomorrow. I am praying that the air conditioning keeps working. If it doesn’t, I am going to have to […]

TW3 There was a marvelous television show that aired when dinosaurs ruled the world. It was a sort of faux news show collided with the black-out humor of Ernie Kovaks. They called it “That Was the Week That Was.” It was fairly popular, and became known as TW3. This week could qualify for that. I […]

Quick Silver I remember when the thermometer broke when I was a kid. There was a thin column of quicksilver, mercury, which transformed into several astonishing spheres on the counter. It was magical stuff. Pure mercury is a liquid metal, an element all its own, linked to the Messenger God of classical times. Swift as […]

Bones In my dream I was down on the wreck. The current was not so bad, and I could make out the long gray outline of the submarine. The conning tower was broken off and one of the two periscopes was extended. The root of it was somewhere in the inky shadow that covered the […]

Home The notion of Home is something quite dear, and one we all share. I am delighted to be home, for a number of reasons, though I must write it with a small “h.” Perhaps it was the notion of staying in the airport at Traverse City , or huddled on a bench in the […]

The North always holds the winter to it, even at the height of the summer season. The flowers are fragile, and the cinder block buildings from the time before the construction boom still hint of a drift of old snow around the corner. The new buildings are jolly enough, and that lends a frantic life […]