We just had a flurry of fun with this project. Not the first time for fun, but this time it was something new. The below was the Chairman’s first book. It was done around the time dinosaurs ruled the planet in 1979. This is what it looked like the first time we saw it, only a little less dog-eared:

That was the copy the Chairman had in his office. It was a sort of a display nod to where this enterprise began, the one that began with President Carter and the strange initiatives of his time, which included giving the Panama Canal back to the Chinese.

That is one of those things that ceased to be much of an issue once complete, since things continued the way they did since we dug the path between the seas. But now the Chinese merchants operate the ports on both ends of a waterway on which we depend but now do not either own or control.

So, that old tan book about a response to the nation of Iran five decades ago has also led us to a new set of turning points in progress now.

The book above? It was typewritten on paper, carried by hand from Japan to Korea after being written in the waters off Iran on a place called GONZO Station. There, Korean workers hand-set it into a format they could print in black and white without illustrations. There were some available back then, but it was too hard to incorporate into the manuscript and they lay undisturbed in the bottom of a ragged seabag obsolete before his retirement a quarter century ago.

So, we are going with an edition that updates things a bit, and gives the perspective on what has happened since an election in which Mr. Carter recognized the results of an election and peacefully transitioned his government into another one. And some of the stuff that has filled our time since.

So, the new edition will have a little spirit of the original- and it is surprising it was written, published and distributed on a US Navy Ship. As were some of the cartoons, which could be construed proudly in modern times as “misinformation.”

Production staff at Socotra House is engaged on an important and timely project at the moment, which is the “Coastal Empire” compilation of long-time contributor Marlow’s (Stu Schippereit) observation’s of his ride down the American Road in the American Century. He is going to be interred over at Arlington next month, so we want to have it available to toast the memory of a man who rode it in his way on his time and in some of the great places in this world. And some of the other places as well.

The other stuff is also in progress and Marketing is all over us to remind people of what is laying around. It is a project we view as being in the national interest. It is available for sale, but we also are trying to have it accessible on the Vic Socotra | Purveyor of glib words to the world website.

So that is as much energy as we have today. Sorry for the commercial. But times being what they are, Legal and Marketing are in agreement for a change. They just wanted us to let you know.

– Vic

www.vicsocotra.com