(James Barbour’s magnificent home had an octagonal chamber designed by his pal Thomas Jefferson that was a wonder in its day. The home burned in 1884 and was never re-built. The Zonin Family stabilized the ruins when they bought the estate and began making wine. It is a wonderful place. Photo courtesy localectual in Charlottesville, […]

07 December 1941 (The people from the Washington Post failed to note that I cancelled my subscription years ago, and for some reason the Sunday advertising and comics has been showing up at my door. I took advantage of the freebie to sit down and read the comics, something I have not done in years. […]

 I have already written the equivalent of three stories this morning, and I can’t bring myself to till those particular furrows again in a less passionate and more objective fashion. I wish I had the emotion and articulation that H.L. Mencken had. He could skewer the ruling class like no one else. You have […]

(New York and Ferguson protesters tie up morning rush hour on the roadways in and around Washington. (Twitter photo by @NikkiBurdine)). I was listening to the radio yesterday afternoon- news and traffic on the eights and “as it happens-“ and discovered that demonstrators had blocked the 14th Street Bridge. I shivered with delight that I […]

(Rembrant Peale’s heroic image of General Washington). I am so scattered that the week is now half gone just going to introduce myself to my grandson. The drive kicked my butt; I am clearly going to have to work on teleportation or something. I finally got around to writing the list of things I need […]

It is hard to convey the range of emotions from the Holiday weekend. It included the sublime and the astonishment of new life, bright with promise, and the ridiculous with some old reprobates at the Elk’s Club in hipster Ferndale, Michigan. Too much time in the car, of course. I had not planned ahead to […]

I woke in Newton Falls, which considering that is where I went to sleep, worked out pretty well. I don’t know what I was thinking. Well, about the weather. I am going to go introduce myself to my grandson. That is historic (for me) and he probably won’t mind that much. About the weather, that […]

(The bridge to Olongapo City from the Naval Reservation at Subic Bay in the 1970s. The kids standing atop one another in the banka boats in the Hit River are begging for alms. In the distance is the billboard for the stereo equipment we all had to have, and the famed Marmont Hotel). I had […]

(Lincoln in February 1865, about two months before his death. Picture by Alexander Gardner, Library of Congress). The historians tell us that Gettysburg, the epic battle in the summer of 1863, was the high water-mark of the Confederacy’s revolt against the central government of the United States. It would be convenient if those that lived […]

I am not exactly between worlds this morning. I know exactly where I am, though I wish I were elsewhere. It was unseasonably cold last week in Washington- January cold- then unseasonably warm, and the radio is babbling that there is snow coming for Thanksgiving. I am pretty sure that the Keys or the Gulf […]