Author: Vic Socotra

Arrias: More Lessons Learned

We are 120 weeks into the war in Ukraine, a peace conference begins in a week in Switzerland (at which only one side is represented), and the war continues to evolve. But there are some lessons we can draw from the war, and perhaps some hints of what the future may hold. None of these […]

The Anti-Freeze Age

10 June 1951 (Image from the 2006 movie “The Meltdown,” the second of the “Ice Ages” series. The plots were based on the breakdown of the ice dam that kept Lake Agassiz bonded inside the great glaciers of the Laurentide, in the North American continent. The dam broke 15,000 years ago and a giant flood […]

World Ocean Carnival

Old Salts (Russian Warships Resurface in Chittagong After 50-Years). The Salts were energized, since there is a morning topic some of us actually understand. DeMille got them quiet at the Production Meeting of thew Writer’s Section. “Three Russian warships are making their way to the Chittagong port in Bangladesh. It is one of several naval […]

WER’s Sketchbook of How Design Happens, 1956

Author’s Note: This is a short edition that doesn’t meet Daily standards but doesn’t represent art as much as the technology involved in attempting to awaken and old computer by: Finding a suitable charging cord on Amazon, which was delivered almost before I ordered it. Then charging the old box, and exploring how many 32-character […]

Messaging About Trouble

(L- FBI Director Chris Wray before Congress, R- George Orwell before all of us). DeMille had hoped the weekend would bring some relief to his day-job. He had three manila folders on the white picnic table on The Patio near the rear entrance to the Socotra headquarters. The Arlington skies were clear, and there was […]

The Nature of Normal

The Writer’s Section at Socotra House was ready for the weekend even if we still had a full day to prepare for it. That is normal, though there are some indications that change is on the way. Vic had an article about the impact of the new D-E-I standards applied to all aspects of American […]

The Last Parade

There is both a lot and a little in progress this week. You can see the ambiguity in the jumble of assorted information bullets above. Congress is back in session, so none of us, including Dr. Fauci are completely safe. So we could lurch into some of the tumultuous strands, or pay attention to something […]

A Day Between Victories

This is a day between. There are several events we commemorate, others at which we marvel, and others unfolding to an uncertain future. In this moment, we have declared a minor victory in creativity. We think we have found a break point in this saga of America’s march toward an uncertain future. The manuscript to […]

Arrias: Captain Queeg and the ICC

In Herman Wouk’s masterpiece “The Caine Mutiny,” the clever, intelligent but execrable LT Keefer manages to maneuver and manipulate his shipmates into committing a de facto mutiny, removing Captain Queeg from command of his ship. In the court martial that follows, the lawyer turned Navy pilot, (again a lawyer as he recovers from being shot […]