(NBA Hall of-Famer Dennis Rodman (right) and the Outstanding Leader (far left). The translator in the back is the same one who helped me when I lunched with the DRPK’s General Secretary years ago. Job Security. Photo KCNA via Reuters).

Well, put away the white shoes. Summer is over. The pool is shuttered today; Milos the Polish Lifeguard is off on an airplane with his buddies for a trip to South Beach and Key West. He claims he will be back to unlock the pool this weekend, and then the countdown to the last weekend begins.

Marty 2 and Mary Margaret were already planning the party they are going to hold that afternoon, and invite all the people who count to Patio Beach to conduct the solemn (if inebriated) ritual of The Last Swim.

OK- you can say my reaction is hysterical and overblown, this constant whining about the glittering blue water, but I could be yammering about Middle East policy, you know?

BTW, if you think I am going to offer some knee jerk castigation of disorganized policymaking and wishful thinking, I am not going to do it. I am supporting the President on this one, out of respect for the office and for the Nation. The President if off to Russia this evening for the G-20, and I am sure we will be hearing more on all this
With no real good choices, though, and no clearly identifiable good guys, it is much more appealing to concentrate of things that are much more black and white. Or maybe fuchsia and indigo, considering the personalities.

I was boggled this morning, attempting to plumb the mysterious meanings of famed NBA star Dennis Rodman’s encore trip to the Hermit Kingdom.
Dennis was identified as the tall man with the green hair as he transited the departure zone at the Beijing airport, headed for the North’s Air Koryo gate. He said to media representatives that he “plans to hang out with Kim Jong Un, have a good time and maybe bridge some cultural gaps. Maybe start a basketball league.”

He landed on Labor Day, and was greeted by Son Kwang Ho, vice-chairman of North Korea’s Olympic Committee.

You will recall that the Outstanding Leader just wrapped up the execution of the pop-group to which his wife and ex-girlfriend used to belong, just days after Pyongyang rejected a visit by a U.S. envoy who had hoped to bring home Kenneth Bae, an American missionary jailed there.

Beats me. I have a pal who also served in the ROK and he summed it up this way:
“A 6’8″ heavily-tattooed basketball player – who once pressed charges against his 5’1″ wife Michele for assault and battery and physical abuse, makes friends with a twisted, power-mad son of a twisted, power-mad son of a twisted, bloody dictator, who juggles a nuclear weapons development program with the inability to feed his people and the execution of an entire rock group for supposedly making a sex tape.”

I won’t include his acerbic comments on the Middle East. I am going to ignore that, now that the USS Nimitz Strike Group and a couple of amphibs filled with Marines have been added to the equation.

If you wrote a novel that contained this kind of insanity it would be declared ‘unreal,’ incredible,’ ‘too bizarre’ and therefore not worth reading.

The Northerners are a fascinating (and horrifying) lot who never cease to entertain. My surreal opportunity to lunch and joke with the General Secretary of the North Korean Worker’s Party was one for the ages.
Me: “So, Mr. Kim, how are those multiple rocket launchers pointed at Seoul defensive weapons?”

Kim: “It is very much like your “defensive” aircraft carriers.
Both: Smiles.

The North abruptly called off the official visit about Citizen Bae because it said the U.S. had ruined the atmosphere for talks by holding a drill over South Korea with nuclear-capable B-52 bombers.

Rodman said the purpose of his visit was to “show people around the world that we as Americans can actually get along with North Korea.”
I am hoping we can get along with someone.

Copyright 2013 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com
Twittter: @jayare303