The early thunder prompted a glance at the growing gray light spilling in around the blinds. Only fifteen months to go! Plus, it is a medical morning, an appointment with the cardio Doc that had been an afternoon affair but rescheduled to middle morning to accommodate a surgical intervention not directly related to any of […]

“A US National on a Joint Security Area (JSA) orientation tour crossed, without authorisation, the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) into the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK),” the UN Command said on Twitter. “We believe he is currently in DPRK custody and are working with our [North Korea’s People’s Army] counterparts to resolve this incident.” […]

We went back to Korea this morning for a quick visit to the bar of the Hamilton Hotel on the street in the Itae-wan district of Seoul. It was 1981, tensions were “high,” and there were several parties in town conducting a variety of licit and illicit activities. None of us are going back, though […]

This particular tale turned up in a search through the Korea Files. We had been looking for something about that strange Cyprus trip to insert in the manuscript for the book about Congressional Travel. Instead, we found ourselves seated at one of the battered stools at the Hamilton Hotel’s street front bar in Seoul, Republic […]

Did you see the date on this one? I left it in there from the morning 22 years ago when the below account was first poked into the digital stream about a place called “China.” It was an attempt to capture a fresh recollection of a visit to one of those exotic places. This one […]

I was getting low on the stream of data- information- and the Red Start Stream slows at that time of afternoon on the Potomac sliding through Cocktail Hour, dinner and the early call for bedtime in Switzerland while the activities of the still-busy day in Asia have other commentators living life rather than writing about […]

The Salts on the patio were in an uproar, and you can imagine why. Word had floated out from the big five-sided Building on this side of the lazy brown river that the smaller alabaster building on the east side of the same Potomac might need our services again. We are aware of some of […]

We have another of the month-long festivals to observe today, one of five this July alone. It has a curious bridge to another one on the list, which is a tribute to mental instability. It is called up specifically on this date among the 31 other options since it celebrates something specific on this one: […]

I was happily lit up from the vodka I inhaled at the ritual Folks At The Railroad Track End of the Subdivision Happy Hour.” Two of us from the street were heading out to the Forrestal that night, so the gaiety was slightly muted by the realization that the crushing schedule was beginning to roll […]