![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/072011-news-oftheworld1.jpg\" "\\"072011-news-oftheworld\\"")
\n(Butterfly stroke, or Dolphin, in the Big Pink pool.)<\/p>\n
\n(Butterfly stroke, or Dolphin, in the Big Pink pool.)<\/p>\n
The heat was as wet as a damp washcloth. Adam, the Pole from Podlaska, had firm control of the pool deck with his bluff friendly manner. He is a big guy, muscular, if a little soft in the waist, an East European version of a Minnesota interior lineman.<\/p>\n
Podlaska is so far east that it is almost in Belarus, one of he several Soviet Republics occupied by the Germans, and which before that had been known as White Russia.<\/p>\n
Adam looks like his great-grandfather might have been one of the Whites who fought the Reds in the early days of the USSR. Things were slow in the languid heavy air by the pool, and he abandoned his post under the umbrella by the gate and got in to slosh the blue water with a powerful dual-overhand stroke.<\/p>\n
\u201cNice Butterfly,\u201d I said, after he completed an underwater racing turn and stood up in the shallow end.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe call Dolphin,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I thank you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jiggs popped out of the building, carrying his towel and goggles. \u201cStock market was up two hundred points,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat\u2019s up with that?\u201d<\/p>\n
My Associate and her lovely mother sat on the edge of the pool, limbs in, soaking up the humidity. Their hair seemed to expand by the minute. I shook my head. \u201cDon\u2019t know. We had a late lunch at Willow and a little wine to start the happy hour early. We did not pay any attention to the market.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThink there was progress on the debt ceiling?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cCan\u2019t think of anything else that would cause the markets to go up,\u201d I said. \u201cThere was some talk about the Senate producing a compromise now that the House has got the balanced budget thing out of its system.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou mean a grand compromise at this late date?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe. It will require some magic, but maybe the markets were reflecting relief that someone is acting like a grown-up.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe could use some of that,\u201d said Jiggs and grimaced as he stepped down the stairs into the water that retained some of the coolness of the night. \u201cBut the last hard news I had was about Rupert Murdoch\u2019s wife decking a guy in Parliament who was going to hit him with a cream pie.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNow, that is news you can use,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNews of the world,\u201d said Jiggs, and submerged.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2011 Vic Socotra
\nwww.vicsocotra.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
(Butterfly stroke, or Dolphin, in the Big Pink pool.) The heat was as wet as a damp washcloth. Adam, the Pole from Podlaska, had firm control of the pool deck with his bluff friendly manner. He is a big guy, muscular, if a little soft in the waist, an East European version of a Minnesota […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-socotra"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1364"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1364\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1367,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1364\/revisions\/1367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}