Idi Amin Dada is dead, finally, at 78, or 80, depending on what you hear. He never knew precisely when he was born. But that is the way record keeping was for the subjects of the dying Empire. He had been on life-support since July 18. He suffered from high blood pressure and went into […]

It’s payday, and that is going to juice up the weekend. Money is energy sometimes. Ben Afflick has plenty of that. He is 31 today:filled with juice, young, movie-star good looks and blessed with millions to care about him. Julia Childs is 91. She still has enough juice to get by but not a lot […]

WASHINGTON-It was sixty-eight year ago on a day just like this on the banks of the Potomac- muggy, oppressive- that Japan unconditionally surrendered an empire taken by force and which they held for three years and 250 days after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. It had been three days since the incineration of Nagasaki. Washington […]

It is Atomic Week, a bunch of anniversaries which are passing almost without comment. We ought to remember. Today is the day that the Russians cooked-off their first Hydrogen device in 1953. They didn’t have rockets then that could reach across continents. We used bombers, flown by men. There are only 34 B-29 Superfortresses left. […]

Pied a terre is French, I think. Being an illiterate in multiple languages I always work in context and thought the phrase meant a “piece of earth.” Like you would have a “piece of earth” in town. That was close enough for Government work, but I was informed recently that it actually means “a foot […]

I saw Osama down at the pool yesterday. He was having a beer in a big red plastic cup and seems to be doing well. He was worried about a couple issues, though, and I offered to sponsor him for a Green Card. Not that Osama. I’m talking about the son of the Jordanian Army […]

ARLINGTON- Today is a day of queer anniversaries. In 1948, the pudgy former Communist Whittaker Chambers, publicly accused former State Department official Alger Hiss of having been part of a Communist underground. Hiss vehemently denied right to his death. It wasn’t until a half century later, with the disclosure of the existence of the Venona […]

I showed up at the White house yesterday feeling dazed and reeking of alcohol. A friend had advised me that a rinse of designer vodka could cut the germs. I complied. The feeling of disorientation is not unusual, particularly at the White House these days. And this morning it wasn’t even my fault. The sailor […]

My cracked tooth requires me to attend Navy sick call for (I hope) the last time. I discovered it while flossing vigorously yesterday. The filling on the last upper molar on the right side assumed independent life and I realized suddenly how vulnerable I am to the disintegration of my body. I have a few […]

I went to the best retirement ceremony ever yesterday. That is a pretty dramatic statement since all of us, of a certain age, are retiring all at once. There is a certain competition to do it right, since there are so many to try to remember and celebrate. It is a question of timing, all […]