We all know that NORAD (The North American Air Defense Command) traces Santa every year. But, here at the Special Compartmented Operations and Tracking Center Hypo (SCOTCH) we have been working a special program, (known locally as “Project Single Malt”) to develop a better idea of what we are really looking at when we consider […]

How much trade is carried by ship? Perhaps as much as $20 trillions worth as it turns out. On any given day there is more than $100 billion worth of international trade moving on the world’s oceans. In 2021, the last year with complete figures, 11 billion tons of goods, 80% of all world trade […]

Author’s Note: He was just sitting up there in the tree this morning – 2nd morning appearance this week. But before I went out he was hooting quite a bit – I looked it up – definitely a Great Horned Owl’s call…ArriasInline image Early morning, a dense, warm fog, The sky still black as pitch, […]

Author’s Note: It just seems to me we could get so much more done if we had folks who paid attention… – Arrias One of the marvelous scenes in the movie Man For All Seasons has Thomas More talking to his friend the Duke of Norfolk, about More’s refusal to endorse the King’s divorce of […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Author’s Note: This whole thing just makes my head feel like it’s about to explode….Arrias In 1942, a short while after the US landed in North Africa, several US soldiers were convicted of raping a local woman. They were tried and found guilty. The commanding general – George Patton, approved their sentence and had them […]

The reason an heroic movie, an heroic character, attracts us is simple: vicariously, we become heroes. Whatever the scenario, we place ourselves in it – Ben Hur in the galley, the homesteaders on the high plains, or perhaps Schindler saving his workers at “Emalia.” At the same time, we know we’ll never have to actually […]

I recall thinking he looked old and frail. I was 14, it was my freshman year in high school and I remember him sitting there, on one of the love seats that my mom and dad had in the den, between the dining room and the living room, in that beautiful house we lived in […]