French Birth Rate Skyrockets   It is never good news to hear about your hometown on the overseas radio. I knew we were in trouble when the BBC reported from Fairfax County, and it was about the wave of shootings this summer. This morning they reported about my alma mater, The University of Michigan. My […]

Vigilance   This is an early morning. I sampled the January air from the balcony. The air is cold and dense enough to fly a nun. Not as cold as it is in Seoul this morning, where in January the breath freezes hard on the interior windows of the escort van and the traveling party […]

The Play-Offs   Well, things are settled in the National and American Conferences. Saturday was better than Sunday, plenty of drama in the demise of Pittsburgh and Atlanta as Tennessee and Philadelphia advanced through the Wild Card round to the Championships. On Sunday things were straightforward, both teams with Pirate motifs blowing out their rivals. […]

Vicki,   I was on my knees tracing a phone line, trying to get a dial tone so I could call someone to remind them how important it was to catch the World Service. I had to trace the jack to the wall, and in the process of taking it out and reinserting it, when […]

The Horrors of War   Vicky Barker of the BBC did me wrong this morning. She got me agitated and very nearly made me later for work. Actually, it wasn’t her. Vicky is OK. It was one of the Beeb’s correspondents with an irritating air of moral superiority and a foreshorted memory.   I was […]

The Answer to the Korean Crisis   The news is loonier than usual this morning. The Brits have found a makeshift biological production lab in London and arrested six men. Three more are at large. It looks like the bad guys were producing Ricine, a powerful toxin, but all they found was traces and they […]

It is a hell of a morning. The wind is cutting like a knife, cold and committed to the new year. The dawn is crisp and businesslike. Colin Powell looked dubious last night, but the last pillar of the Axis of Evil announced that it was going to halt its nuclear weapons program. Not that […]

Green Side Up   There is an old joke that is completely appropriate to this day as we prepare to stagger back to work. The excess is about over, parties done, and return legs from vacation complete or in progress today. The Ohio State Buckeyes are Kings of College Football, first time since the year […]

Copyright 2003   Gentle Readers, I hope that the Eve was good for you and the New Year finds you dry and comfortable. Ohio State is playing later today for the National Championship and I will dutifully cheer for the Big Ten, though my heart is not really in it. My game is this morning […]

The metro region is buried this morning under feet of heavy white snow. The Government won’t be a threat to anyone today, and I’m not sure we are going to be effective again the rest of the week, regardless of how hard we dig or how warm it gets. My apologies to the BBC this […]