It’s pretty hard to imagine someone reading this Web log who would be unaware of the significance of today’s date – it’s January 18, 2012. This is the day that millions of Web sites across the world, including some, or perhaps all, of those on this site’s own blog roll, will go dark in protest against the Stop Online Piracy Act (H.R. 3261) and the Protect IP Act (S. 968). My brother Rob Roy, his wife Katje and their son Jason know where they stand on this issue – they’re all Internet hipsters who sport odd looking eyeglasses (even though they don’t really need them), spend several hours a night engaged in MMORPGs, write iPhone apps on the weekends and [...]
While relaxing at home in Great Falls, Virginia, this afternoon, I received a telephone call from Jacques, my thoroughly French friend from La Sorbonne. Jacques: Hello, Tom? Comment vas-tu? Tom: Ca va, et toi? Jacques: To tell the truth, my friend Tom, I am not so happy today, because of what I have read on the BBC Web site. Tom: About what, pray tell? Jacques: There, I read this morning that somebody named Newt Gingrich has made, how do you say, the campaign advertisement, yes? And in it, Newt Gingrich says that his opponent, Mitt Romney, is an evil man who will say anything to get elected. Tom: Actually, it’s not Newt Gingrich saying those things about Mitt Romney. Jacques: [...]
Last night, Cerise and I dropped by the Round Robin Bar at the Willard Hotel to enjoy some of their exquisite cocktails before the theater. After we had ordered, she surveyed the crowd, then leaned close, speaking softly. “See that fellow over there?” Cerise asked. “The one drinking alone? That’s Bletchley. I know his wife. We met contra dancing at Glen Echo. She invited me and some of the other dancers over to her house for a barbecue last August. He makes pretty good beer can chicken, and he was a really nice, jovial host, even though she tells me he hates contra dancing.” “Did she say how come?” I inquired. “Apparently,” she giggled, “holding hands with other guys makes [...]
Being booked solid on Friday from seven-thirty a.m. through well past six in the evening, I felt perfectly justified in setting aside an hour and fifteen minutes for lunch. But I had to cancel my reservation and send out instead, because Mooney from STRATFOR had spent most of Thursday afternoon and Friday morning pestering Gretchen for an appointment. “Want some?” I offered, gesturing at an ample assortment of sashimi pieces, nigiri and maki as Mooney flopped down, discouraged and disheveled, on the couch by the picture window looking out on the White House. “Sushi?” Mooney asked skeptically. “We have a word for that stuff down in Texas.” “Oh,” I goaded with a wry smile, “you do?” “Uh-huh,” he nodded. “We [...]
Orban’s Tooth-and-Nail Hungarian Goulash Recipe
Yesterday was another twelve-hour Saturday, which, given the state of the nation, and, indeed, the world lately, I suppose shouldn’t have surprised me. Not that I’m complaining about working six days a week instead of five, no way – make hay while the sun shines, I say. Around nine o’clock, I received a visit from Colonel Szoposkurva Faszkalap, the new Deputy Special Representative for International Policy at the Hungarian Embassy here in Washington. His stated purpose was determination of an appropriate strategy to present his nation’s new constitution – and a few interesting new laws and actions taken by Viktor Orban, Hungary’s Prime Minister – to the Powers That Be here in the United States. “Thank you, Mr. Collins,” he opened as [...]