Washington, DC
Friday, June 29th

Today the students were on Economics and Public Speaking classes the bulk of the morning. I have been sitting in on the econ class because, as some of you know, I did not get a lot out of my Econ class at Rhodes. To more direct I rarely attended my Econ Class. In fact one time my Dad went to look me up after class. He did not see me in attendance so he naturally asked the Professor, Dr. Inskander, if he knew where I was. Dr. I responded something to the nature of this, “Oh John Stephany! Smart boy…… I have not seen him in this my class for months. I do however often see him on a coach outside the fraternity house drinking beer on Friday afternoons. Maybe you can find him there.” Spot on. Sure enough, my pop found me in the very spot Iskander described. Needless to say, Dad and I had a pep talk. Oh well, you live you learn. Here is the irony. I am still paying for that class in the form of student loans. Natural consequences are the best ones. So that’s why I am a 36 year old trying to steal some Econ knowledge on the cheap. I digress.

The rest of the day I knocked around the school checking in on the classes and getting my notes ready for a class that I’m teaching next week. Some of you may remember my friend from Rhodes, Graham. Well he is still works at St. Albans and we ate lunch a couple of times this week in the school cafeteria. Small world. I am planning a trip out to see him and his family in a week or so.

In the afternoon the class heard from Dana Milbank from the Washington Post. The morning was spent with Dana Milbank of the Washington Post. Milbank spoke of the career path that led from an intern with the Pittsburgh Post Gazette to Wall Street Journal to the New Republic and then to his present role with the Post. His self deprecating humor was quite disarming. Milbank's stories of his time in the White House Press core were as humorous as they were informative. He discussed the niche his page two column operates as a blend of straight news with an editorial flash. The Post describes it as, “an observational column about political theater in the White House, Congress and elsewhere in the capital.” When he worked in the White House Press corps he generally thought of the most hated reported of the entire corps. He wrote a book called Smashmouth, which was a behind the scenes look at the 2000 Presidential Election. He has a new book coming out called, “Homo Politicus”. He says it will be a mock anthropology of the Washington man.(Article)

In the evening the SPS crew went to the Marine Barracks near the Capital to watch there review performance. For an idea just remember the opening sequence in Tom Cruise flick, A Few Good Men. If you want a special treat, the next time any of you see Tusky ask him to do his rendition of Jack Nicholson’s memorable speech/diatribe on the defense stand. You will wet yourself. Sometimes he’ll just leave it on my voice mail for no apparent reason. Good times, good times. Anyway, I skipped the performance for and evening of crabs and beers at great crab shack called the Quarterdeck, in Arlington. I joined Norm to celebrate the birthday celebration of Sank. Sank is one of Bill’s friends from the Air Force Academy that Norm got to know from the Dewey Beach house of years past. Did you get all that? Well the crabs were nummy and the beers were cold. Another good night.

Smashing some Blue Crabs at the Quarterdeck in Arlington