The first color ones are to be released from the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, site of the thumping USC administered to my Wolverines last Thursday. I am coming to terms with it, slowly. The loss, that is, not the Mars landing. The Europeans bounced a science package off the surface last week and something […]

 It is the transit of Venus this morning, six hours in which the Earth and the Planet of Love are in the same orbital plane, and the outline of our mist shrouded sister is visible, outlined against the hydrogen blaze of our neighborhood star’s vast heart.  I shall walk around the great flank of Big […]

I am up, of a sort, and not hung over. Just a little tired and daunted by the prospects of moving down from the Fifth Floor to the unit by the pool deck. There is a lot to deal with, all this crap acquired through a life of travel, files and curios all conjuring sound […]

I had a lunch meeting at James Mackey’s Public House on L Street. I took the metro down, since I was working at the government facility on the Orange Line in Arlington. When I got off at Farragut West the streets were full, but the people were walking more aimlessly than usual. This close to […]

It is the very dregs of the year. It is unseasonably warm and it is raining in Washington. The Holiday continues to drag on. Work is eerie. Most of the office is gone, off doing something interesting, and I am building my vacation balance and occupying space. What I am doing cannot precisely be called […]

Renouncing the Treaty As the Japanese make their first hesitant step to deploy troops overseas, it is useful to place things in the context of the last century. It was 1934, a key date in the world’s slide into black chaos. Japan renounced the Naval treaties of Washington, signed in 1922, and the London accords […]

I think I could just start all these out by saying that “there was a rocket atack in Mosul today, and the ancient city of (fill in the blank) was destroyed in an earthqauke in (fill in the blank). Today the ancient city was named “Bam” and it was located in Iran. The world continues […]

The dog let me sleep until 6:30 this morning, my head slightly musty from the Christmas Eve Cheer on the fifth floor of the Big Pink building just north of Route 50t. It is interesting to live in a building that has a variety of distinct personalities. The Fifth Floor is very eclectic, and frankly […]

It is the second day of winter and it is going to be 60 degrees here in the District. I may put the top down on the car and pretend that there are not three more months of apprehension, looking up for snow. In 1823, the poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas” by Clement C. […]

There was a late night phone call. It was the President of the People’s Republic of China, Mr. Hu Jintao. He wanted to chat about Taiwanese independence. I’m glad he didn’t call me at that hour. I doubt if I could have fumbled for the briefing book and mouthed the words “Well, Hu, I reckon […]