Here in Seattle, we're on multiple alerts: waiting for both snow and terrorists tonight. Let's see which arrives first, or if either arrive, or neither.

My nephew K, a new Navy recruit, is an astute student of history. When he went on a road trip with friends last summer, he brought along a copy of Herodotus that I'd given him for his birthday. My guess is that he's already mused about the similarities and differences between ancient and modern warfare.

Some things stay the same. Like an Athenian youth off to confront the Persian forces, K leaves behind a young woman who would rather he stayed--in his case, his girlfriend, A. She is stoutly anti-war, and although they'd been together for a couple of years, I thought his enlistment might put a swift end to their relationship. But it hasn't done so, and she traveled halfway across the country to attend his boot camp graduation ceremony earlier this month. I'm crossing my fingers that she'll stick with her young man, because she's a true "catch": beautiful, talented, and socially graceful well beyond her 18 years.

And some things change. K returns for a few days of leave next week, just missing Christmas and his birthday, which falls on New Year's Day. This afternoon, his mother J and I contemplated what he might want for presents. We know that anything we give him must be small and portable. After some discussion, we arrived at two possibilities: either a gift card for the local outdoor gear store or DVDs for his newly-purchased portable DVD player. I had thought of a phone card, but he's already gotten himself a cell phone.

Of course, the Athenians had no Gore-tex, couldn't call home, and couldn't watch the latest LOTR while rowing their triremes...though they won their war, against all the odds.