Author: Vic Socotra

Arrias:Thucydides, Taiwan & a Tattered Umbrella

The island covers just 61 square miles, it’s currently home to about 5,200 people, it lies about 90 miles or so south-east of Athens, and about 90 miles north of Crete. Except for the fact that it’s one of the many gorgeous Greek islands “floating” in the Aegean Sea, it would be forgotten by history, […]

National Peach Cobbler Day

End of Bloomeroo ’23! Gotcha! This piece isn’t about Cobbler treats, delicious as they were though we do have an article with a recipe we were holding for the Refuge Farm Cookbook. The memo from Legal was the first thing on the agenda this morning. They were apparently planning on a Friday with loose compliance […]

A Quick Note

The Justice Department has released the criminal complaint against Massachusetts Air National Guard Airman First Class Jack Teixeira. We are keeping this short, since the FBI special agent on point informed a Federal Court of probable cause that Airman Teixceira had violated two parts of: Title 18 federal code: Section 793, which falls under the […]

Weather Report: Rain, With Leaks

The point of these weekly updates is to mark a moment in the later week to highlight the nature of change in our world so we can anticipate what might be coming next. We normally pick one of us to do the verbal narrative, which usually starts out with “And all this stuff is going […]

Editor’s Note: Marlow chimes in this morning with some thoughts about the road ahead we all share. We held off on running this piece during Holy Week to stay in tune with the turning of our world from winter gray to the promise of bright blossoms amid fresh new green. Our contribution? Stay alert. And […]

A Little Traveling Music

(Senior US Senator Diane Feinstein, 2004) It’s Wednesday, the Hump day for this cycle. The Lady in Red on the office flatscreen says it is warm again, temps in the mid-80s, but with a cooling trend approaching with rain by this weekend. In the meantime, our clouds will burn off here above the Potomac River […]

That Taiwan Thing

(Chiang Kai-shek Tomb Guard, Taipei, Taiwan 1981) It is a sunny Monday to start things after the conclusion of Holy celebrations for three major faiths. Easter was great here, with a joyous family brunch across Route 50 under cloudless skies. By the time we were able to focus again, word was spreading from across the […]

Arrias: Divine Service

Here’s a simple question: If you were hiring someone to provide dental care, would you insist applicants be dentists? It seems reasonable to me, but not, apparently, to some people at Walter Reed National Medical Center. Though, the issue isn’t dentists – perhaps that’s next, but about pastoral care, specifically Catholic pastoral care. A long […]

The Seven Seas: Port Call Al-Iskandriya, 1990

Port Call Al-Iskandariya, 1990 Downsizing is an interesting evolution. We are in the process at the moment. Looking through the different old directories stacked up in the computer was interesting in attempting unscramble the past. Part of it is a numbers thing. Did we make all 50 States? How many nations? And was it six […]