WWJBD? The answer is revealed

I got a compliment from our Korean interpreter last week. He told me that I was a pleasure to work with. That I spoke with an easy cadence and, and this part is the real compliment, that I understood their culture. I told him that I had no choice but to understand their culture because I was a southern man raised up by a southern mom. This caused the "Huh?" look to crawl across his face, so I continued. "See, I was raised to be polite, to say please and thank you, sir and ma'am. I was raised to put myself in others' shoes and to consider how they feel. I was taught that if someone has to be inconvienenced, better you than them. I was taught that there is a proper way to act in public and it does not include loud talking and buffoonery. I was taught that a smile compliments any conversation. That's how it is in a small town southern town. Tell me how this is different from how you were raised in your Asian town." He smiled and nodded.

I was sitting there, watching something harmless like COPS or Dog The Bounty Hunter. For some reason, by way of playing with the puppy, I started whispering in his ear, over and over, "What would Jimmy Buffett do?" While I don't think Ramblin' Wreck knows who Jimmy Buffett is, or even what the action verb "do" means, he did respond. In a way that might even make ol' Jimmy smile. He drooled on my shirt.

I was reading a letter in the opinion page yesterday. It was from an Army Veteren. He was some kind of pissed off, too. Seems that the local schools are letting groups opposed to the war have equal time on campus with the military recruiters. The fine veteran vented in no uncertian terms on the subject. That led me to wonder if he had ever made the statement about how I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the end your right to say it. Personally, I am of the opinion that some kids are gonna join up and some kids aren't. And that all kids aren't gonna do something just because some adult told them to.

I bought our tickets to Bangkok this week. Just shy of 21,000 miles round trip. $3,600 for the tickets and 120,000 miles to upgrade to business class. Except for the two Tampa legs. Those are on Ted and Ted don't have First Class. But they still took my miles from me. The trip is in February. I just like to ensure that the upgrades get confirmed without hassle. I'm not a "waitlist" kind of guy.

Useful information of the day: Papaya trees to don't take kindly to being moved.

I like this line. It is from something that I am writing that just isn't working right for me. Most of what I have written so far can be described as a good idea that still sounds like crap. But, I think this will remain unchanged:

I guess I'm feeling more or less

stormy. Tropically depressed.

Go Saints!!, out

Ramblin' Ed