William E. Socotra took the “Grand Tour” of Europe in 1903. That was the year that humankind first took powered flight, and the glitter of the colonial empires gave no proof that Europe, and the world over which it stood as Master, was ten years away from complete implosion. I don’t know what he would […]

The Snake Ranch Papers is one of those things that has followed us around since 1981. There was a time when triplicate forms were used in order to provide “carbon” and “file” copies to normal correspondence. That limited distribution to a very small group and provided safety that would have saved at least one career […]

The Chief Executive of a big nation made impromptu remarks on his return from Israel the other evening. We had not intended to view the show, but like other events in this amazing comprehensive political campaign it did not work out that way. Instead, the program was run twice more over last weekend and we […]

Wish something would break in some kind of easement to peace, you know? We woke to expect more announcements of conflict this morning. You know what we are talking about. The unsettled nature of who is at war with whom with still hot, and we could sure use an epiphany. We will see how this […]

We couldn’t avoid talking about some of the people we used to talk about this morning. It was funny about the timing of some of the whimsy about the latest war that made us think of an earlier one. Not a hysterical response, mind you, but the mid-1970s were years we shared at the start […]

We seem to have stumbled into the Autumn with a vengeance. We are not sure how it could have been prevented or altered to make it a less painful process. We do enjoy the one time in the working week that we can sigh, turn to face the production crew and say: “Yeah, all this […]

The New War is heading toward status as a continuing event. Headline? “Iran warns Israel of Preemptive Action!” Soon! That includes not only Hamas in the Gaza Strip but Hezbollah fighters launching rockets from Lebanon in the north. This Saturday may have a little breathing room as the three or four powers in contact align […]

Despite the fact that it is clearly not Saturday, there was the usual modicum of disbelief in the assertion that it is the Day of Prayer and rest. Correspondent Trey Yingst apparently got some sleep after working the first 73 hours of the conflict and other media figures were flown into the region to explain […]

We confess we don’t get what is going on at the moment. The War thing currently going on in Israel eludes some of our understanding. The IDF- the National Defense Forces- has a well-deserved reputation for excellence. The mystery of how it was taken by surprise a week ago is still unraveling, although some of […]

It wasn’t the first time anyone noticed. We had a less formal meeting while attempting to chart a reasonable course through currently troubled waters. Context of conflict was confused. The sudden incursion by Hamas into southern Israel was unexpected, which naturally led to speculation that there was more to the story. That would be a […]