Got the official letter of invite from Gerry Mauer, the rear admiral commandant of the Industrial College of the Armed Forces, for my now annual address to the ICAF student body. As opposed to the previous two years when I gave it in August to kick off the school year (my first time in 2004 was at the end of the year in June), ICAF decided to hold me off until late October based on how they're using PNM this year.

Some chance C-SPAN may record. It's done it in the past twice (the long June 04 version of the PNM brief and the hour-long 2006 version of the BFA one). If the network decides to tape again, it'll catch the pre-next book version in one of its last iterations, meaning a tight summary of PNM, plus the essentials of BFA, plus numerous look-aheads to the next book.

Anyway, it's one of my favorite stages in the world (very warm, nice modest height, great sound, good screen behind, etc). The audience is always a solid 400 or so (the 300-plus students, plus a bunch of faculty and interlopers, like Barone sneaking in on the 2004 show), and because it's mil-heavy, I deliver at my fastest bit rate.

Plus, it will be fun to be hosted by Mauer. He's the admiral who brought me to a NATO conference in Berlin back in 2005 (a great trip) and I love to maintain connections like that over time.

Anyway, I raise the issue simply because if you're of the right stripe, it's a good event to catch.

Of course, the Smithsonian event will be at roughly the same time, and that one would be easier for non-field-insiders to gain access to.

Just trying to give people the heads-up they're constantly asking me to provide.