Category: Today on Top Secret Washington

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10 Things You Must Do Today

Diana Belchase here. With the election upon us and rumors of coming violence in the U.S. and around the world, Peter Shankman, creator of the Help a Reporter site, has come up with 10 things you must do today in order to preserve your mental and physical health. […]

Good Friday in Italy

Covid-19 has caused us all to shutter ourselves away from the world, away from religious and traditional gatherings. I hope to bring a little glimpse of the beauty of Holy Week to you, my readers, by sharing footage from a past Good Friday in Taormina, Sicily. Good Friday […]

Museum Mondays: Kobell’s Siege of Cosel, a study in breaths of gray

The Siege of Cosel, which was painted around 1808 is like a woman covered in veils. Gossamer layers of gray, recede ever fainter as he paints the foggy battle scene. Textbooks do not show this well. Even though the painting is massive — larger than a wall in most homes — these figures are sometimes as small as the head of a pin, only visible less than a foot away from the canvas. Seeing them makes the average museum guard nervous as you move scant inches from the canvas.

Buy a Piece of Tom Clancy

Thriller writer Tom Clancy passed in 2013, but he’ll always be an indelible part of the top secret D.C. landscape. He knew his subject inside out, and if authenticity is what thrills you, no one did it better. Now his estate is going up at auction and you […]

Remembering John Rehm

On June 23rd, 2014, John Rehm passed away. Though it has been two years, I still think of him often. He was a mentor and friend who died much too young and much too painfully. Please join me in remembering him via this post from back then. Too […]

Red Fox

Cecily Nabors reports on the wildlife in a suburb of D.C. A professional nature writer, Cecily’s work can be seen in Audubon Naturalist News, Bird Watching Magazine, and Bird Watcher’s Digest.