Seesaw on the Mississippi War consists of two basic options: defense or offense. The middle ground is the perilous transition between the two, mastered only by the truly expert. Two hundred years ago today, the war of 1812 thundered to an effective close when two able leaders, Andrew Jackson and Edward Pakenham made history on […]

On the Square Benjamin Ogle Tayloe (1796-1868) is the son of Colonel John Tayloe III, the man who built the Octagon House at 18th and New York Ave., NW, Washington, D.C., about 1800. The Octagon House was the stand-in White House for the Madison’s after the Brits burned the real one around the corner during […]

Camelot’s Court: Inside the Kennedy White House “He can’t do that to me.” Such was JFK’s response when he was told at 8am, while still in bed in pajamas, reading the morning papers, about the missiles in Castro’s Cuba. He, of course, was Nikita Khrushchev, Soviet Premier and Kennedy’s chief antagonist. Kennedy’s exclamation underscores how […]

have been working these past few years as a Washington, DC, city guide. It’s a bit like working for the fire department.

  President Johnson This November 22 marks the 49th anniversary of JFK’s assassination as he rode in an open convertible through Dealy Plaza.  America was changed forever in the minutes that followed as Kennedy’s death was confirmed and Lyndon Johnson (LBJ) became president as he stood in a commandeered examining room at Parkland Hospital. Robert Caro, […]