Dec 7, 2023
TOCSC pays for itself
I had barely dipped my toe into The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails when the book paid for itself – which is saying something – because I found the guy I want to be in my next life. I was still early in the B’s (the TOCSC entries are alphabetical) when I came across Charles Baker. Charlie had an allergy to hard work, so he married an heiress named Paulene Paulsen – her father, August Paulsen, had built a fortune via lead and silver mines in the mountains of the Coeur d’Alenes district of northern Idaho. read more »
Nov 30, 2023
What whiskey won’t cure there is no cure for. Irish proverb read more »
Nov 23, 2023
It is simply a myth that the world is anywhere close to multipolar. Jo Inge Bekkevold, Norwegian Institute for Defense Studies read more »
Nov 16, 2023
As a result of the accelerating decline in Europe’s global influence and reach … the overrepresentation of Europeans in global institutions is the greatest flaw in the international architecture. Walter Russell Mead read more »
Nov 10, 2023
As we saw last week, President Xi understood (as observers in the West did not) that China’s growth model was exhausted and that the only known strategy for continued growth was to transition to a Western-style consumer-led economy. That had been the strategy used by other now-wealthy Asian societies. read more »
Nov 2, 2023
The vaunted China model … has entered its death throes. Michael Schuman in The Atlantic read more »
Oct 26, 2023
A Committee of Inquiry was investigating Angie’s attempted suicide at VA, and now the chair and vice chair of the Committee had been in Rich’s office for an hour and a half. They finally left, looking grim, and Rich had remained in his office alone for a long time. Then he summoned Meg and me in. read more »
Oct 19, 2023
Meg and I had been enjoying some serious quality time on the couch in VA’s front room when Meg suddenly froze – she’d heard something. read more »
Oct 12, 2023
Disaster strikes
As I’ve mentioned, from my first day at VA I’d been flirting vigorously with Meg Petronius, albeit to no avail. What I didn’t know was that Meg had recently ended a troubled, long-term relationship and the last thing she wanted was to fall into another one. read more »
Oct 5, 2023
The Resignation
Meg had asked me to tell the girls they could get out of their beds but I’d told her I couldn’t, “Because I don’t work here anymore.” read more »