It was 1995. It was not the first time I had been to the Hermit Kingdom of North Korea. But last time was a quick scoot to the north side of the conference table in the Treaty Village at Panmunjon. A North Korean guard in one of those flying-saucer caps peered in the window from […]

Black Cat It was black as the inside of a cat when I got up, and cold and raining. I had a date with destiny, or something. I had been commanded to be in the Emergency Room at Bethesda before 0700 for evaluation. I was told to bring a bag, just in case they had […]

The Wait Everybody has to wait. Mr. Gonzales, the President’s nominee to be the next Attorney General, did some waiting yesterday. I saw it as I watched the news scroll by on CNN, killing time. I saw that there were seven national guardsmen killed in Baghdad, the worst incident since the mess-tent bombing in Mosul […]

Old Guard College football is finally over, though I had to take a pass on it. I am sad that the Big Money has decided that the most significant games of the season will be played till midnight on a work night, and I refuse to watch the corn-chip commercials for the privilege of watching […]

Requisat I was trying to find out what we had to do to spread Snidely’s ashes at sea when I saw the stupid old Navy is going to scuttle the O-Boat as an artificial reef in the Gulf. There are four states, or five, if you include the joint proposal, that want the former USS […]

There were three voicemails waiting for me when I stirred in the darkness. The cell phone beeps slowly, every minute or so, like the dripping of a faucet. I looked at the dim red light of the alarm clock. I was screwed. It was 0248, and sleep would not come again. I stumbled around, and […]

I never saw a truck melted to the height of a card-table before, but I did yesterday. I was in a high state of agitation anyway, having wasted an hour in the visitor’s center in front of CIA. I was not able to work the security system, which is apparently fairly simple but only if […]

Background Check How time flies. It was only a year ago that Saddam was found in his spider hole. He has been questioned regularly ever since, just like a government worker or a Defense contractor. If you haven’t had a polygraph lately, you ought to try one. Like It is a marvelously clarifying experience. You […]

Air Raid Pearl It is sixty-three years and a world away now, the great surprise. I used to think about it a lot when we were young sailors in the Great Patriotic War against the Commies. In that year we were assigned to the staff of the Theater Anti-submarine Warfare Commander, a three star Admiral […]

Cable TV It is an ambiguous day. It doesn’t know if it is going to rain or not outside. I listened to the sound of explosions from Jiddah, in the great empty nation of Saudi Arabia. The American consulate was hit by two explosions. They can’t keep it straight as to whether the facility was […]