Author: Vic Socotra

Life & Island Times: Vengeance

Editor’s Note: One of us was on Dr. Fauci’s SARS-1 team twenty years ago and recalls being lectured by him on the dangers of lock-downs and over-reaction to that disease. To avoid restrictions on US biological research, the Good Doctor moved the operation overseas. To China. –       Vic Author’s Note: I’ve been thinking about how one half of […]

Arrias and His Muse: War Is Hell

Author’s Note: My Muse in somber mood this morning… Wading through a host of reports on Ukraine, the fighting around Bakhmut seems to be growing in intensity, and the trench warfare is getting nastier and nastier as the weather gets colder, and yet there is a story in one of the big foreign policy journals that that […]

Weather Report: Winter Arrives!

Traditionally, this is a pivotal week in the average year. We have celebrated a joyful holiday replete with good food and fellowship with family and fellow citizens. Then, Friday dawned with a traditional surge toward the malls to commence the frenzy of Christmas shopping, to be followed by a gigantic buzz on Cyber Monday. We […]

Life & Island Times: Georgia Election

Editor’s Note: Marlow contributes an update on his Coastal Empire election marathon. Since all the rest of us have been wondering (for months?) about who will lead the U.S. Senate, this account of the endless series of tabulations may be useful. Current standing? 50 Dem, 49 Rep, with the Peach State still undecided. – Vic […]

Order and Results

(Reports this morning are that China’s former leader Jiang Zemin has died at the age of 96. He came to power after the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989, an event that echoes some of the growing frustration with China’s response to the Covid virus. Image from our friends at Reuters). We have veered from our […]

Secular and Liturgical Grammar

There was a vigorous discussion about Latin out on the balcony this morning. A bit chill and gray skies that suggest the onset of moisture falling from the sky.  Well, actually the vigor was more about something called ‘grammar.’ That would normally start with a lower-case letter unless it referred to your Mom’s Mom, both correctly […]

Through a Looking Glass

Morning! We glanced in the mirror this morning and saw everything reflected back in a weird amalgam of shifted shapes. Attempting to unscramble them took the first cup of coffee on a new week. Slow on getting to the laptop, we found a cool set of headlines on one of the sites the group scans […]

Round the World?

(This caricature of a sailor named “Salty” was found in the piles of paper shipped from The Farm to Arlington. It was drawn in 1945, and we are 99% sure of the year. We also believe he has been 99.71% of the way around the world). We are not confused this morning. We are addled. […]

Short Leash

(In order to restrain a dog with an unruly streak a short leash is sometimes required to keep them close. Today we are going to explore what may be coming in the New Congress, and what length of leash they may require. Photo Old Mill Store). OK, the Midterms are sort of done, and the […]

Black Friday

We have been in the new place for a little more than a week. Thanksgiving has passed, as has the seasonal restraint on celebrating Christmas in September or October. There are other significant milestones in the calendar, of course. Down on The Farm, there would be the urge to get the daily observation on the […]