I anticipated that someone from NASA would summon me concerning the Nowak incident – it was just a question of who, where and when. The suspense hardly had time to build, as I opened my Inbox to find an urgent email sent just 53 hours after a Navy captain allegedly pepper sprayed an Air Force… Continue reading The Weird Stuff
Seventeen Will Get You Twenty
Have you ever noticed that peculiar phenomenon, where everything is going great guns and then something steps in to kill the buzz? As you might surmise from the previous post, Friday afternoon I was steaming full speed ahead like Farragut up Mobile Bay, damning torpedoes left and right, doing what I do best. Then, as… Continue reading Seventeen Will Get You Twenty
Departmental Drones Do Davos, Draft Dollarific Document Deal
It’s only a short walk to my office on Constitution Avenue from the Commerce Department, so it was hardly more than a brief bit of exercise in the passably fresh air of Washington in January, but Bixby looked exhausted anyway. “Tom, the Interagency Working Group on International Economics needs to buy some of your time… Continue reading Departmental Drones Do Davos, Draft Dollarific Document Deal
All Strung Out
Should you ever journey past CIA Headquarters, driving from US Route 495 down the George Washington Parkway in the direction of Roosevelt Island, there is an exit not far after the CIA which leads to Chain Bridge Road. Make a left, as it were, by making a right onto the cloverleaf, and cross back over… Continue reading All Strung Out
What’s in a Name?
My email Inbox has been overflowing with epistles concerning my name. Approximately 50 percent of them are from other people who call themselves “Tom Collins.” They present irate demands that I stop using “their” name or else they will sue me, attack my Web site, find my residence and firebomb it, track me down like… Continue reading What’s in a Name?