ARLINGTON- Today is a day of queer anniversaries. In 1948, the pudgy former Communist Whittaker Chambers, publicly accused former State Department official Alger Hiss of having been part of a Communist underground. Hiss vehemently denied right to his death. It wasn’t until a half century later, with the disclosure of the existence of the Venona […]

I showed up at the White house yesterday feeling dazed and reeking of alcohol. A friend had advised me that a rinse of designer vodka could cut the germs. I complied. The feeling of disorientation is not unusual, particularly at the White House these days. And this morning it wasn’t even my fault. The sailor […]

I went to the best retirement ceremony ever yesterday. That is a pretty dramatic statement since all of us, of a certain age, are retiring all at once. There is a certain competition to do it right, since there are so many to try to remember and celebrate. It is a question of timing, all […]

The rains came again last night. They swept over the metro region after the commute was done for me, and the only thing they did was rob me of the lengthening shadows by the pool. I listened to the rain through the open door to the balcony, feeling the humidity flow into the room. The […]

It is a manly sounding name for an exercise, Determined Promise. It implies a vow of great solemnity and is intended, I think, to promote public confidence. It is another in the series of exercises designed to stress and test the ability of a local government to respond to and ameliorate the effects of a […]

I cranked up the Fujitsu as we cleared Flight Level 29 and headed for crusing altitude at 33 thousand feet. The airline had promised us the movie Chicago- a feature article is prominent in the in-flight magazine, too, some sort of product placement cross-promotion- did not seem to want to play on the tape machine. […]

Last week, in 1881, the Sioux leader Sitting Bull surrendered to federal troops. He had been off the reservation, on the run for five years. Since the great victory on the Little Big Horn on the 25th of June, 1876. You will remember the Last Stand, though it didn’t happen that way, when the serenely […]

It’s the Ides of July, halfway through this month and a long ways to someplace else. I turned on the radio, up late and getting Vicki Barker of the World Service in mid-broadcast. Nobody was murdered in Iraq last night, at least no one of consequence. But she told me this morning that the troops […]

‘Easy reading is damned hard writing.” – Nathaniel Hawthorne Not that what I write is easy to read. I will leave that to the old dead white guys of the pantheon. It is the Fourth of July. It is a magic day in this slow-starting summer season. This feels more like Memorial Day than the […]