Author: Vic Socotra

Detroit’s Electric Road

OK- we saw the Toronado shown above the other day and it has drifted through our imagination ever since.That is what two-door automobiles used to look like. That blue beast demonstrated a front wheel drive and an aggressive smile on the chrome grill. That was how some of us got around in 1967. this is […]

Weather Report: Declassified Obituaries

We are going to run the weekly meteorologic update a little out of the normal sequence this morning. You may have felt the same way when you saw the headlines this morning. We had not quite got over the news of the passing of former First Lady Rosalynn Carter. The announcement about her husband Jimmy […]

And Meanwhile In Persia…

(We thought we would start with the Footnotes section of the Socotra Daily and get that out of the way. You are aware of how complicated this gets and how quickly when we deal with other people’s religious faiths and try to stay away from the details we do not understand. When world history came […]

Mombasa, Kenya: Nyali Beach, 1979

08 June 1979 Editor’s Note: The nature of the world is in change. This item first appeared in the Socotra Daily in the summer of 1979 in a place called “Kenya.” What will the powers do next on the world stage? A doctor’s appointment looms here in the Piedmont. Why I accepted a commitment to […]

Arrias: Just War

In an early version of his 2nd Inaugural Address, Abraham Lincoln wrote of the Civil War that that: “…each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be wrong.” In his eloquent, spare style Lincoln reduced Just War theory down to a single line. There are […]

Not a Bad Game

You may have seen that there was a football game scheduled yesterday. Well, more accurately there were several of them. You saw some of the early anxiety in the column last week after successfully ignoring the impact of new rules and conference allegiance. We do not claim to understand it, so this season has had […]

Arrias: Winter in the Dismal Swamp

Author’s Note: Cold and gray here – winter in the Tidewater – the dogs are looking for warm spots… Cold and gray, a north wind blows, Dry leaves tumble across the yard, A line of gold marks the dawn, But brown and dead the sward. Turn my back to the wind, It’s cold, and hard […]

Gobble Gobble

We have finally arrived at a real, no-kidding national holiday! Yesterday had its moments, of course. On November 22nd, we celebrated: “Go for a Ride Day!” “Love Your Freckles Day!” “National Cranberry Relish Day!” We know what we are doing today, of course, since this is one of Those No-Kidding Nationals, the one instituted by […]

Bravo Foxtrot

It is finally here, like actually today! In our old military parlance, we would term it “Bravo Foxtrot.” We will use that instead of the public term for today, since it has been used already. “Black Friday” seems to have been going on for weeks! You may have experienced the disorientation, since today launches the […]

Arrias: Thanksgiving

If you ever get the chance to visit Plymouth Plantation, the re-creation of the town of Plymouth, circa 1631, that sits just outside of present Plymouth, Mass, I highly encourage it. It has been years since I have been but I remember going late in the year – a raw November day, the wind coming […]