Dateline: Hamilton Inn, Oak Ridge TN, 15 September 2005

Another triple of a day.

Got up and jumped in limo the previous night's client had arranged for long haul in DC from hotel way out past Dulles. Had my four newspapers (WP, USA, WSJ, NYT) in hand, and read them in hour-long drive. See results below.

Arriving at Mandarin Oriental, I immediately spot two celebrities: Minnie Driver looking pretty fine despite the huge, pitch-black sunglasses and Bishop Desmond Tutu, who also looked fine with all his obligatory garb.. In both instances I thought at first I must be imagining things. Then I realized, hey! It's DC's only five-star hotel. So I chalk it up to the weird perks that come with traveling with Steve.

Once into the hotel I spend hour with Patricia Smith and Barbara Marx Hubbard of women's global peace-focused networking group and world futures study firm (respectively), basically giving a taped interview to Smith and then doing Q&A with Howard. It was a very interesting exchange, all about the central role of women in the journey from the Cap to the Core (I have a section in BFA entitled, "You Can Tell Everything You Need to Know About a State By How It Treats Its Women."). Promises of future interactions with groups from their side of the aisle, but I won't hold my breath. Honestly, it's hard to get that conversation started from their end, as opinions tend to be just too strong about the military.

After that I meet up with Steve DeAngelis and have fascinating discussion with Dick O'Neil of the Highlands Group, which runs the Highlands Forum for the Office of the Secretary of Defense's chief IT people (I've attend three over the years (starting with the one on Y2K) and had PNM featured in two of them (global futures and post-conflict stabilization ops) in the past year)). Dick's group does a lot of amazing work, including some dabbling with Hollywood as script doctors on futuristic films. He tells more intriguing stories about people and places than just about anyone I know, and he's been a good friend and supporter to me and a lot of other out-of-the-box thinkers in the Defense Department realm over the years. Man is a connector extraordinaire, and just a really wonderful man to boot. It was great to see him looking healthy and happy and as fired up as ever (this man is a happy warrior in the world of grand ideas), for as I get older, too many friends have a harder time managing the former and that leaves us all unhappy.

Then I catch a cab over to Meridian House, which sits a couple of blocks north of Dupont Circle. It's an old, dusty mansion of a place, with no AC and open windows galore. Perfect for 92 degrees, high humidity and pollen to beat the band. I'm there for the State Department conference on non-standard threats, to give a presentation alongside Michael Mandelbaum (he of many fine books) of Johns Hopkins. I also get to hear David Rothkopf, who's very sardonic but a brilliant guy who can talk all day about the most complex things and never say anything stupid (a feat I will never master). My presentation goes well, and Mandelbaum's on his new book (early 2006, The Case for Goliath) is really intriguing. I find myself nodding in agreement with almost everything he says. He has a truly original mind. We do Q&A in a very complimentary (and complimenting) fashion. I was amazingly mature-almost grown up, really.

Then to National for a nice dinner at California Pizza Kitchen. Then a USAIR flight to Knoxville, during which I spill a Sprite into my Mac's keyboard (seemingly no issue following my heroic efforts to dry out). Then my third hotel in three nights.

Tomorrow is a quick morning of brainstorming at Oak Ridge National Lab with Steve and the locals. A strong finish, no doubt, to a strong trip

Here's the daily catch:

■ White House pushing its case on Iran, and getting nowhere with allies-either old or future

■ The only country more revolutionary than the U.S. in the 21st Century will be China

■ Does the drawdown begin in Afghanistan or not? And what does that tell us about the GWOT?

■ Canada looks a lot bigger at $70 a barrel

■ The Latinization of the American farm