John Soane, Architect My friend David Barbour suggested I see the home of John Soane, a 19th-century architect who lived in Lincoln’s Inn Fields. Soane collected Roman antiquities partly as teaching aides for students when Rome was off limits for military reasons. Today, the house is a museum by act of Parliament. It may be […]

Things Must Be Slow Bookings must be way down if even I got a suite at the Hilton. Trust me, not complaining here. It’s a great hotel located about a ten-minute walk from the Wembley Park Tube station and adjacent to Wembley Stadium. And, Wembley is ten quick stops north(ish) of Bloomsbury, my hangout for […]

Wembley, Actually I grew up eating those white and black packages of cheese and powdered milk marked “USDA Government Surplus”,  a 1960’s form of food stamps, which may in part explain my perpetual desire to save a buck. So it was I found myself in a “World Traveler Plus” seat aboard a British Airways 777-200ER, […]

A Force for Change How many people outside the IAFF, longtime members, have spoken up about the corruption they witness in Washington? At least six and almost certainly more. While not in a position to know of everyone, those six are all seasoned leaders with decades of experience, and some are on the record. They […]

Bring in the Plumbers IAFF General President Harold Schaitberger has apparently concluded that incriminating information, perhaps in the form of documents, is leaking from the IAFF. Many will recall that President Richard Nixon, also faced with leaks, created a special White House unit called the “Plumbers” to find and plug them. If it’s good enough for […]

Shining a Bright Light in a Very Dark Place Word is emerging this week that a major US newspaper is conducting a thorough investigation into the finances at the IAFF, among other things. While it’s widely known that Harold Schaitberger lives a life of luxury paid for by IAFF rank-and-file members, this is apparently the […]

Antietam Sublime A road trip yesterday to gather up my young cousin for a visit included a return to Antietam battlefield located south of Hagerstown, Maryland, and just north of Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. It was late on a summer Saturday, hot but dry, with billowing clouds dotting the sky, perhaps not unlike September 17, […]