The average road trip day

Dateline: Holiday Day Inn, Arlington VA, 1 November 2004

Flew to DC this morning and drove to DC to brief the CAPSTONE program, a special joint education course for senior military officers run by National Defense University.

On the way there I meet up with a rep from the defense contractor that's sponsoring a defense industry conference tomorrow where I'm speaking. He's got 30 copies of PNM for me to sign. They are being given to all the conference speakers as a gift.

After the 90-minute talk at NDU, I drive to my hotel and check email. Then it's onto to a 3-hour dinner with 13 others who've come together to meet me and discuss PNM's main ideas. The dinner is put together at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse here in Crystal City by a trio of senior analysts/managers from the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Dahlgren VA. I had spoken there about a year ago and, after many requests for me to stop by down there on one of my DC trips to discuss the book with them, these three offered instead to take me out for dinner next night I was in DC. Once the date was set, they contacted 10 of their closest colleagues and friends from their informal network of contacts in various defense contractors, intell agencies, and think tanks, and so tonight ended up being a sort of casual dinner party to discuss PNM in depth.

All in all, a nice way to spend an evening since it's really any author's dream: an extended audience with smart readers who just want to meet you and discuss your book's main ideas. My thanks especially to David Ray and Steve Anderson for setting up this get-together.

The only down side? The day which began at 0730 ends at 2300, but that's fairly standard for me on the road, which is why I always return home somewhat exhausted from the non-stop travel and constant performing.

Here's the daily catch:

■ The new missionaries comeóquite logicallyófrom the New Core

■ The limited logic of reform in the Islamic world

■ 9/11's most pervasive new rule set is classified

■ New Core economies: where is the action is . . .