Occasional Drizzle I got the call at the office. I could hear the distinctive ring-tone from where I stood, shooting the breeze with an office mate. A former Congressman was supposed to visit us, since it appeared that we had some issues of common interest on which we might partner. I was watching the door, and we […]

Process There is no happiness in my heart this morning. The cold rain is soaking the ground, falling steadily from gray skies. The conflict over a woman’s body in Florida has drawn the world’s attention, and the lines in Washington appear drawn starkly between the social conservatives and the process conservatives. That line thread those […]

Leviathan I had every intention of writing about a gigantic submarine this morning. It is a cool story, embedded in my life, one of the seminal stories of wonder that my Uncle used spin around the dining table. He dared me to think of an aircraft carrier that sailed below the sea. I was a […]

Tom DeLay and the Living Will Listen, this is early on a Sunday, and the strident tone clashes with the soft mist outside and the rich smell of earth. I am embarrassed to be writing this. But it seems necessary, though it is really none of your collective business. But here it is, big as […]

The Long Telegram I wanted to sleep late but I couldn’t. I was up and down a couple times and gave up. The meeting the previous afternoon had left me depressed. I needed to get a memo put together, something that danced around the issues and wouldn’t tag me as the bearer of bad news. […]

The Mara It is the Ides of March, the middle of the month in Roman reckoning. I am wary of those with a lean and hungry look, as Caesar should have been, and I think I see some. Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, is across the parking lot from Big Pink, the condominium block where I live. […]

Universal Adversary Eric Lipton and former Senator Sam Nunn made my morning. Eric was writing in the New York Times, and Senator Sam was talking to National Public Radio. If it had not been for them, I would have had no idea what to panic about today, since the anthrax scare of yesterday appears to […]

Retreads I talk to the folks on Sundays, late in the afternoon when things are pretty much wrapped up for the weekend. They are normally watching golf, and I am looking at whatever seasonal sport is on. It was basketball yesterday, though they could as well have televised people working on tax returns. I gave […]

Protected Speech Price Charles is getting married to his long-time paramour, Patricia Parker-Bowles. The BBC told me it was going to happen as soon as April. They interviewed a man named Winston Churchill about the situation, saying he was a long-term friend of the Prince and a former Member of Parliament. He said exactly what […]

Vienna The woman in the Monday meeting looked at her notes and indicated that she was going to Vienna the next day for a meeting. I had the image of a trip to Dulles, and a big jet across the water. I let my mind wander a little, thinking about a break from the current hysteria […]