Friday, June 13, 2014

A day like all other days, except...

First, today happens to be Friday the 13th. Second, today is also a full moon, the Strawberry Moon, to be exact. Third, today is also the day when Private/Sergeant (pick one) Bowe Bergdahl, former prisoner of war/deserter (pick one) captured by the Taliban, who played soccer with him/kept him in an iron cage (pick one), returned to U.S. soil from Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany. He is now in San Antonio, Texas, at Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston.

Everyone knows -- at least everyone who is superstitious -- that Friday the 13ths are unlucky. Everyone also knows -- perhaps a different set of “everyones” -- that during a full moon more babies are born, more crimes are committed, the tides are higher, and more loonies are out and about, doing their thing.

Which reminds me to say, “Welcome, Lord and Lady Yorkshire Pudding, to our shores!”

As always, my timing is impeccable.

Moving right along, it is therefore with joy and pride/fear and trepidation (pick one, er, two) that I am now able to present to you a link to an article by Kimberly Dozier in The Daily Beast wherein two letters that Bowe Bergdahl wrote from prison and that were delivered by the International Red Cross to his parents have been made public today for the first time.

The article contains fascinating stuff, not least of which is Bergdahl’s innovative spelling. I was under the apparently mistaken impression that one had to have graduated from high school to be able to join the military, but perhaps spelling is not taught in our schools any more. Wait, I believe I remember reading that Bowe Bergdahl was home-schooled. As a little girl named Alice once said, “Curiouser and curiouser.”

I’m sure we'll be hearing much more about Private/Sergeant Bergdahl and the Taliban in the days ahead, Friday the 13th or no.

Stay tuned, come hell or high water.


9 comments:

  1. A very weird story, and that spelling...boy, you're right there.
    Thank you for the moon it's a really beautiful picture of it. *smiles.

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  2. All Consuming (Michelle), the site where I got the public domain photo of the moon said that it was a composite image of the Moon as taken by the Galileo spacecraft on 7 December 1992, and that t The color is "enhanced" in the sense that the camera was sensitive to near infrared wavelengths of light beyond human vision. All righty, then!

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  3. Too many of us are too quick to judge.
    (Says the woman who does judge on the spelling front.)
    My heart goes out to him and his family - without regard to his reasons for leaving.

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  4. Elephant's Child (Sue), I agree. Far too many of us are far too quick to judge. I am glad that Bergdahl is back on American soil, and that he is no longer in the hands of the Taliban. Whether he is safe from the U.S. Army and very vocal sections of the American public remains to be seen. And whether the American public is safe from the five detainees released from Guantanamo also remains to be seen.

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  5. I appreciate your welcome to us upon arrival in your fair country. But where was the marching band and the senatorial handshake when we stepped off the ferry in Port Angeles? And surely you could have driven over to Port Angeles to check the welcoming arrangements? I looked for you but you were not there! Very, very disappointing!

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  6. Is it already Friday in Georgia? It's only Thursday in Oregon--1:30 p.m. to be precise--so how can it be Friday in Georgia when the time difference is only three hours? Could you be mistaken about it being Friday? Could I be mistaken about it being Thursday? Could the 13th have come and gone six days ago without me noticing? Should I cut back on the narcotics? Where am I am? Who are you and how did you get inside my computer?

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  7. Yorkshire Pudding, sorry, the marching band was in Los Angeles, not Port Angeles. My mistake. I waited and waited, but you never showed up.


    Snowbrush, It is not already Friday in Georgia. It is still Thursday in Georgia -- Thursday, June 19th. I didn't post this post today, I posted it last Friday, which was Friday the 13th. You are reading it today, which is not last Friday. You should definitely cut back on the narcotics. You are in Eugene, Oregon. I am your old friend Rhymes and I am only inside your computer in a manner of speaking. I am actually sitting in front of my computer in Canton, Georgia, which is, as you say, only a three-hour time difference from where you are in, repeat after me, Eugene, Oregon, although I may not be (sitting in front of my computer) by the time you read this.

    Glad to be of service in clearing that up for the both of us.

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  8. "I am actually sitting in front of my computer in Canton, Georgia, which is, as you say, only a three-hour time difference from where you are in...

    Ha, you must think I'm stupid. If you're only three miles away, then it would be the same day there that it is here unless one of us is on speed, which I very much doubt, that is unless coffee counts.

    "repeat after me, Eugene, Oregon, although I may not be (sitting in front of my computer) by the time you read this."

    Okay, here goes: "Eugene, Oregon, although I may not be (sitting in front of my computer) by the time you read this." You didn't say how many times to repeat it, so I guess I'll stop now.

    The part I don't understand is why, if you're not sitting in front of your computer when you're writing something, how you can be sitting in front of your computer when I'm reading it. Your post is loaded with quantum physics.

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  9. Snow, I'm not three miles away, I'm three hours away -- there's a difference, unless you walk very, very slowly. And I was sitting in front of my computer when I wrote this, but I may or may not be sitting in front of my computer when you are reading what I wrote. Your post is loaded with something other than quantum physics, but you may, if you like, take a quantum leap.

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<b>Always true to you, darlin’, in my fashion</b>

We are bombarded daily by abbreviations in everyday life, abbreviations that are never explained, only assumed to be understood by everyone...