(NBC cut to the hammer and sickle in the opening sequence of the Sochi Olympics. Really). No kidding- the National Broadcasting Corporation’s coverage of the opening ceremonies of the Sochi Winter Olympics referred to Communism as “one of modern history’s pivotal experiments” while showing the friendly hammer-and-sickle logo atop the Worker and Kolkhoz Woman monument. […]

No, I am not talking about strays in Sochi. Like everyone, I think I am just hoping that these Olympic Games pass without something awful happening. Or the awful jobs numbers. I am talking about cocktails. The discussion had actually been going on all day. My pal Annie out in Shenandoah is always on the […]

  I love it when I get up in the morning, trying to remember that I still need to find the thousands it will cost to get the Panzer back from the tender ministrations of the technical wizards at the Werkstatt Kompanie- and by the time I have consumed a pot of coffee and ingested […]

When my eyes blinked open in the pre-dawn, something was nagging in that part of memory that said: “You have to do something.” It wasn’t the dream. That was about some ancient Navy stuff, nonsensical and non-threatening, and maybe triggered by the news that USS Forrestal (CV-59) was leaving Philadelphia for the 17-day drag to […]

  OK, OK, it is probably a software glitch of some kind. It probably originated in some voice recognition program, or maybe just the “autocorrect” bug that bites me all the time. It is not anything like the astonishingly inept roll-out of the Allegedly Affordable Care Act, and no one, to my knowledge, was actually […]

(The exterior of Big Pink on the eve of the Superbowl kick-off)   Today is the most amazing demonstration of the famed Weather Wall that bisects the city. Rain in Arlington and that looks like it is going to be it. Just a few miles north of here an associate of long standing is reporting four […]

(A German First World War medal awarded to submariner Paul Konig Photo: the Telegraph and CHRISTOPHER PLEDGER). If you like your weather predicted by large furry rodents, you are in luck this morning. I hope you have put some money on the Super Bowl’s outcome as predicted by the Manatees of Florida, who are going […]

(Raj and Kim at the Willow Bar- both players in the Great Game). So, one of my pals wrote this morning with the Weather Report. He said there was another of these goddamned winter storms coming this way. “Thirteenth named winter storm this year!” I wrote him back and said that while I support a […]

(Artist Frita Kahlo as a young woman in gentleman’s attire.) Rafael works his ass off. If you took his duties behind the bar at Willow as a full time job, he adds another as a pastry chef after the restaurant closes down at night, making the most extraordinary filled doughnuts. I have always liked him: […]

    (IJN Akagi maneuvering, 1941) Sorry, this is late and I am still processing The Dream. I ought to be getting my butt in gear and doing something productive. I am not much for interpretation of these night-time things, and normally do not recall much about the dreams I am sure I have all […]