I submitted a piece to the Editorial Board a couple days ago. It was a little caustic about the systems under which we now live. The mirthful part seemed to have been overwhelmed, and it caused a bit of a stir. It provoked Legal to object about material that could be interpreted as critical of […]

(USNS Richard E. Byrd, (TAKE-4) en route Cam Ranh Bay, SRV. Admiral Byrd was an early Naval Aviator and famed Antarctic explorer. Official USN Photo) I am pondering the past and the future it has wrought from the Great Room at Refuge Farm. I am embarked on a deck project to prolong the life of […]

We are observing the anniversary of the great conflict in the waters off Midway atoll in the vast Pacific, of course. I am missing a Zoom call on some elements of it now, since there is family business in progress at Refuge Farm. It is not my family involved, though I am paying the freight […]

Ah, look at the events in our world this week! We lurch into a new month that will propel us into summer! The warmth is palpable, but still tinged with a breath of chill in the morning and persistent gray skies. Our President was out in Tulsa yesterday to highlight the century-old racial tragedy that […]

(Citizens observing Juneteenth in 1866). There was some minor controversy in the ongoing social conflict in America over the Memorial Day Weekend, and a couple stories that can be respectfully put away until the next one. It used to be a traditional American holiday honoring the fallen of wars we remember and others we do […]

(I heard the holiday greeting issued from someplace near the White House yesterday. It was about having a good “long weekend.” We have those periodically through the year, but this one is not “long.” For some it is forever. The vistas of Washington used to captivate me. An accidental project seemed to draw me in- […]

(The famous Marine Corps Monument on the National Mall. Sculpture by Felix W. de Weldon from an image of personnel of Company E, Second Battalion, USMC, by AP Photographer Joe Rosenthal, taken 23 February, 1945). Cool rain coming in on the Piedmont, a couple days of it according to the Lady in Red on local […]

Editor’s Note: Sorry, the events of the week have cascaded into production gridlock at Socotra House. HR distributed a questionnaire to ascertain inclinations of the staff on sensitive social matters, micro-irritations and the direct impact of events that happened to people you might have heard of in some other historical era, and relative willingness to […]

John William Warner, 18 February 1927-25 May 2021 Senator, Secretary of the Navy, Gentleman (Above: John Warner being presented an honorary knighthood by Queen Elizabeth in 2009. Photograph: Rex/Shutterstock) As you are aware, Socotra House attempts to keep a respectful account of the departure of people who have shared- or shaped- the events of this […]

Goodness, there is a lot to cover this week! Some of it is sort of fun. Other parts are weird. Some of that seem to be part of madness. There is word the new Department of Defense Budget will be proposed on Friday, and it contains lots of fun items. That is in parallel to […]