Smoke Signals Everyone looked for smoke today, looking up at the roof of the Sistine Chapel. They got it right this morning, dark and thick, which they did not yesterday. The burning of the first ballot by the Conclave of Cardinals was ambiguous. The crowd began to shout with anticipation, since the first whiffs from […]

Take Me Out It was the most glorious of days, a little cool, perhaps, but the tips of the trees are pastel tinged, and you don’t have a hair on your ass if the top of your car is not down. I got the morning chores done, the dry cleaners, and gas (gulp!) and the […]

QWERTY I can’t type in the morning, arthritis or delirium, I don’t know. I can’t read, either, since the font size that comes up as “normal” in Microsoft Word is so tiny that it may as well be invisible. I have to go back and adjust it to twelve, or even fourteen pitch. I know […]

Unto Caesar If you listened really hard, you might be able to hear the cries of the missing and the dead through the open window. It is season ably cool in the darkness, for this position of the planet in its orbit around the sun. President Lincoln was shot on the day that the Earth […]

Varnish It is the eve of the Fiesta in San Antonio, and the Ferris Wheel has already been erected on South Santa Rosa Boulevard. It will be four days of lights and excess in commemoration of this city’s history and people. It is cool this morning, and still dark. The birds are massing to fly […]

The Bubble I am out the door for Texas this morning, leaving too early because the flights I wanted were not available. The flying weather looks good, no storms between me and the Lone Star State, and only one plane change in Chicago. It could be a valuable trip, opening some doors at the Command […]

Curveball It is going to be 65 degrees and sunny today. The cherry blossoms and the tourists are here and everyone is addled at the beauty of the coming of the season of life. I watched the most remarkable golf shot of my life yesterday, broadcast from the Masters golf tournament. Brilliant sunlight flooded my […]

Blacktop It has been a week of encounters with history, incongruous ones, to be sure, from both sides of the Atlantic. The Pope was interred yesterday, in the grotto below the altar of Saint Peter’s. It is all they can talk about in the media still, and there are all-new pictures on the web this […]

Quantum Mechanics It is a bit murky this morning, and the sound of rain pounding the patio pours in the window. I am home, which is good, since I can find my way around in the dark, but the place is so cluttered with junk that I still can stub my toe or trip over […]

Bag Drag The bill was slipped under my door when I padded past in the darkness. Marriott efficiency, a good thing. There were newspapers outside the door, the Virginian-Pilot and USA Today. They are hyping the Masters Golf Tournament and the cut-off off the line to view the Ope’s body and the death of Prince […]