The Attorney stood in DeMille’s usual place at the apex of the circle- better said, an “oval” around what usually would have been a roaring fire. It was not this morning. It was dark and featureless. The black of the cast iron was amplified by the soot coating the interior of the glass panel on […]

Almost 40 degrees in Virginia’s Piedmont. Sunny skies tracked with passing jets and thin cirrus clouds. One has the feeling that the earth is preparing for some seasonal change. Not ready, not yet, but the mood fits with what is going on overseas. Some say it is a ‘wag the dog’ quotation from an old […]

08 June 1979 Editor’s Note: The War Clouds swirl. NATO versus Russia still loom, but is there a change in the intent of Mr. Putin? The nature of the world is in change. The Olympics continue through the end of the week. What will the powers do on the world stage? A doctor’s appointment looms […]

(Buck Tullock, Noted Refuge Farm Economist ). It was a strange afternoon. Considering that the NFL doesn’t have the following it once did at Refuge Farm there was a certain rising tide of the public mood as the hours passed. Since Splash had made the Saturday trip to Belmont Farms to do some moonshine stockpiling, […]

(General Smedley Butler. Photo USMC) Splash was energized. He had smoked nearly a quarter of a pack of Marlboros and contributed some actual thoughts to the essay the junior attorney would not approve for general distribution. She was a little huffy about that, and suggested we do something that was mildly controversial when Socotra House […]

Author’s Note: It is twenty-one years ago this chapter of the Alphabet Cities was fashioned from random electrons. The city in question was Shanghai, a more exotic location than it is now. It is funny to look back across the bridge of age and recall how we traveled this wonderful world. One of the ways […]

The number of flashing red lights is past the critical stage. We had a solid “red” on the I&W deck already. We are now watching the start of tactical deployment. The consensus at Refuge Farm’s Writer’s Section thinks it likely that it is war next week. The Russian ground exercise in Belarus is in progress […]

Splash was up early and went outside in the pre-dawn. The local temperature sensor claimed it was 22 degrees, fully ten below freezing under clear skies. Whatever that drone thing is that appears in the evening sky still blinked prominently to the east as the real stars faded in the growing light. He closed the […]

This is a heck of a week. The number one issue was local, which is a little surprising, since one of the issues on the screen DeMille left on the tablet at his seat by the fire read “War in Europe?” He had departed the cozy space by the nice fire Melissa had started. He […]

( Our Expert Guide at the Kurchatov Institute in Moscow, 12 May 1998). Many of us Old Salts have heard of what is becoming known as “Mal-Mis-Dis Information.” Our Government has declared what goes on as a sort of domestic unpleasantness verging on something bigger. That is sort of an unusual place to find ourselves […]