Both Legal and Marketing had sent representatives who were waiting while we finished posting the astonishing morning blather that had superseded the plan to make a significant announcement. Then we got snagged on another development further down the list of Big Things (BTs).\

So, that trumped what we were in the middle of as the news came down from new Jersey. Here it is, if you have not seen it yet. We have reduced the headline size to accommodate it’s lower place in the morning hierarchy:

Other Buffets in the Legal Storm

If you have suffered through our earlier account, there were a couple big messaging events this morning, and it took all the hours before lunch and a discussion about the suitability of which sorts of beverages would be suitable on this week-day. And at what time.

The story that caught our attention after the activity of the usual day had passed and we were looking for some relaxation. The earlier story about Vice Presidential nominees and Secret Service turmoil was writ and posted, shared in draft to both annual an evolving narrative files, shared with the AI program which lectures us with tips for what it considers proper diction and emphasis. So we were done and relieved the requirement for thinking was complete before one o’clock- “thirteen hundred,” for those who carry some of the same emotional baggage.

So, you understand a little day-drinking had an attraction for some of the dozen Salts who were in varying stages of preparation for a relaxed afternoon. Then there was a stir, as another element in the massive legal swirl was announced. Senator Bob Menendez has been subject to eight weeks of trial over 16 charges of corrupt activity. The announced verdict is “guilty” on all charges.

You may recall the images that went along with the charges as alleged evidence:

(Yep- cars, cash and gold bars all featured rolls in this variant of the messaging).

The 16 felony charges included obstruction of justice, acting as a foreign agent, bribery, extortion and honest services wire fraud. Whatever that last one is. We do not claim to know. The “foreign agent” charges were for conduct on behalf of the nations of Qatar and Egypt while he served as Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Another prominent official served in that position for several sessions of the Congress, so it may be something our international associates have come to expect as a routine cost of doing business in America. We don’t know, nor of course do we accuse, impugn or otherwise castigate anyone who is operating the new system of American jurisprudence.

So, that is a bit of a round-about means of getting to what we were going to dwell on this morning, which is the exciting launch of the latest Socotra House Publication. We have talked about it for weeks, but yesterday produced an actual delivery from the people at Amazon, so we can testify it works, and a digital copy can be on your hard drive in less time than it takes to type the notification.

The process of getting it edited, uploaded, ISBNs assigned, and available took the better part of a year, so as is common for the creative end of the business, we now consider this exciting, bold and imaginative work of partial-non fiction to be “old news” as we are wrestling with the middle parts of the process for the next “Next New Big Thing!” which we hope to start trundling down the digital, print and audio paths in short order.

But that is the next NBT. In the meantime, this one is a hoot. The digital version is available for a song- less than three bucks was the cheapest we could offer, with actual soft copies available for about what they cost to print.

This was almost as exciting to write as to live. The image on the cover is of the Chairman on a memorable Official Trip with then-Congressman Bill Richardson. He is standing, barefoot for religious observation with lovely Burmese activist Mimi Myant-Hui. That was just part of a story that includes riots and trouble in all sorts of places, with moments of odd tranquility in places like Haiti and North Korea.

It is our new NBT. Take a look- you might have some of the same laughs we had living it!

– Vic

Copyright 2024 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com