My daughter just went to visit friends for a few days, or why I was obviously born 35 years too soon.

When I went to visit friends for a few days in my late thirties, it was to places that were at most two hours away by plane. From here, that meant running over to nearby cities such as London, Berlin or Paris, maybe the two hour flight down to Spain, or the equally short 2 hour flight up to Stockholm at most. If I was in the States, maybe a trip from Virginia up to Boston or Philadelphia by train. Or to visit my grandfather in New York. one time, I went with some friends from Dallas down to San Antonio.

I used to think THAT was a big deal. Little did I know.

My younger daughter laughs puddle-jumping trips like that off. She just left her two daughters with their daddy, and took off for a long weekend to visit friends--in Zanzibar!! Not some nearby resort named Zanzibar, but the real Zanzibar, off the eastern coast of Africa.

I think I was born a generation too early. Of course, I don't have friends living in Zanzibar, and I don't make the kind of money she does now, let alone half my life ago. Think big, live big, I guess. At least she keeps her feet on the ground. When she comes to visit us with our two granddaughters, she drives up and hangs around in jeans and sandals just like she did as a teenager.

I saw him on TV somewhere in the States during the convention in 2016

He saw he had hit something, so he kept repeating it and the crowd was shouting it back at him. One could have wished for one of Kim Jong Un's missiles to pay its friends a visit at that particular moment. It was hard to watch. In another era, they would have been yelling "Duce, Duce" or "Sieg Heil, Sieg Heil!"

No political affiliations are stated in the book

But from the attitude expressed, he certainly sounded like the Ivy League (superficially-) educated William Buckley type Republican. The author, though American himself, hated the place and moved his family to the UK.

In the book, the Major later orders Nicholai tortured, disfigured, and tossed into solitary for three years until the CIA decides his skills are needed. After completing what the CIA asked of him, Nicholai disappears, and the major later meets a violent "accidental" demise, which it is obvious Nicholai has engineered.

It's a LOT easier to say than it is to write! n/t

There was a reason he was slow to react

Namely, he knew better than anyone the "allegations" were all bogus, and didn't think there was anything to respond to. It blindsided him completely that anyone took them seriously, and people who knew him and his family well never did.

Yes, Adrian was a friend.

I'm out with my wife and brother. I'll post in detail about him later on.