I especially liked the part about meeting at a pub....

Hi lmskipper! This could be almost like instant messaging!

Ray could write a great story about the group that never met meeting. Or (shudder) maybe even Stephen King could do a treatment.

quote:

Originally posted by Chapter 31:
Ray could write a great story about the group that never met meeting. Or (shudder) maybe even Stephen King could do a treatment.

If Stephen King did it, I would protest! I hate that guy! You can't tell me he does'nt have a ghost writer, have you seen what that guy puts out in a year?!? I think it averages out to like a book every twelve seconds or somthing.

But ok I'll play along, after reading a few posts by most of the regular posters here, my vote to go Ted Bundy on the rest ff us would have to be biplane. I think I would be too obvious, as would Dandelion, Chap, Skipper, and Robot, well, I'll just say their the meat of the meeting. (I know very bad pun) Nothing personal Plane but you seem so happy all the time, thats just a few steps away from wearing Robot Lincoln as a hat. I still think your the best.

Spock on a trolley!

Oh, sorry. That’s grasstains’s line.

"Christopher Columbus!"

Thank you Jayne for the compliment. Actually I am a pretty happy guy (see the attached photo of me reading Ray's book--I know some of you are getting sick of seeing the photo--oops, I can't attach it here at work) but will be happier when our daughter finds an apartment and my wife and I have our apartment back.

Wearing Robot Lincoln as a hat." What a concept! I am trying to visualize that, but am having a bit of difficulty doing so.

quote:

Originally posted by biplane1:
Thank you Jayne for the compliment. Actually I am a pretty happy guy (see the attached photo of me reading Ray's book--I know some of you are getting sick of seeing the photo--oops, I can't attach it here at work) but will be happier when our daughter finds an apartment and my wife and I have our apartment back.

Wearing Robot Lincoln as a hat." What a concept! I am trying to visualize that, but am having a bit of difficulty doing so.

Your quite welcome my good man.

I would like to point out to our more suggestible readers. A "Hat" is not the appropriate use for Robot Lincoln, while I'm sure Robot Lincoln has may appropriate uses, I'm also sure they are none of my business.

O.K. I am at my home computer and here are two photos, one recent of me reading Ray's book and ten years ago with Ray at his home.

Michael_and_Ray-1996.jpg (189 Kb, 18 downloads)

Well there's one of the photos, now the one of myself reading Ray's book..

Michael_at_Lauderdale_By_The_Sea.jpg (242 Kb, 13 downloads)

No, Jayne, I have to remove biplane from the running. It's too obvious, falling back on bad and largely disproven clichés about Vietnam vets. (Those who had trouble after the service were often those who had trouble in the service or never even saw service.) Even Stephen King wouldn't do it.

Someone, somewhere, has to have done the math on what King says he writes (two single-spaced pages per day) vs. how many books he puts out and see if the words in that amount of books aren't adding up to way more than two single-spaced pages would be! At the least, he is printing every single word he writes; at the most, he has a basement full of gremlins.

Quote:
“Or (shudder) maybe even Stephen King could do a treatment.”

If I had made that comment thirty years ago I might have said Tom Tryon. Ideally it should be Conan Doyle or Poe.

Lampshade maybe, but never a hat sir.

Or should I say nightshade?

quote:

Originally posted by dandelion:
No, Jayne, I have to remove biplane from the running. It's too obvious, falling back on bad and largely disproven clichés about Vietnam vets. (Those who had trouble after the service were often those who had trouble in the service or never even saw service.) Even Stephen King wouldn't do it.

Your opinion of me must be remarkably poor, I hope I at least enjoyed gaining such a poor reputation, although it is unlikely.

Two points, I did not know biplane is a veteran. (Thankyou biplane) I choose biplane because Mr. Rogers with a big knife is creeper than say, "super spy #5" or "disposeable ninja",
I grew up after the war was well over, the idea that Vietnam veterans are somehow less stable than the average American is a new one to me. Don't misunderstand me, I have read my history. I am aware as with all wars, and maybe this one even more so, many individuals and our society as a whole suffered greatly for it. I would never make such an assumption about someone, especialy in recent light of biplane's service.
The initial post was not serious, or how I would write a mystery, it was humor. I will however admit it was poor.

After all this, I will make at least two assumptions about biplane, that I will stand by.
1. He deserves my gratitude.
2. He is someone I would most likley admire if we ever met face to face.

Once again I did not know.
If you expect the worst, thats probably what your are going to get.

What a nice reply, Jayne!

Although veterans of all wars going back to ancient times have suffered post-traumatic stress disorder, Vietnam veterans had it much worse for a number of reasons.

1. People had much more horrible images of Vietnam than any other war due to the freedom of the news media to film events. That has been censored to some extent in previous wars and to a considerable extent since, possibly creating in the public a concept that Vietnam was somehow worse than other wars. (Read "1984" and think about government control over the news media now. The only person I've ever heard speak out against this is Walter Cronkite.)

2. American forces and any allies had to leave Vietnam without achieving victory. (Um, we lost. ) It was the first time in remembered history and possibly all of American history and Americans did not care for it. A lot of their unhappiness filtered down to the vets.

3. A lot of things went on in Vietnam that were JUST PLAIN WRONG. Because a few committed war crimes, the veterans overall suffered for it.

In short: they received no respect, very unlike WWII vets, so some of their PTSD symptoms were more severe, which led to certain members of the public being nervous and jumpy around vets, waiting for them to, in more recent terminology, "go postal." I was a teenager when the war ended and remember this.

(There's a connection between PTSD and "going postal." Hiring preference is given to veterans, so they take people who have been taught to kill, and put them in a job with almost unbearable stress. Baaaaad combination.)

When the mideast troubles began in the late 1970s, patriotism began to come back into fashion. In the meantime, a lot of homeless mentally ill who had either never been in the service at all, or spent a lot of time being disciplined and little or none in combat, took advantage of these bad assumptions about veterans to play on peoples' sympathies, claiming they were disturbed veterans in need of assistance. It gave veterans leading normal lives a bad name.

Senator John McCain is such an inspiration to me, to do so much, after all he's been through. No doubt many unsung heroes are around out there as well.

Ray wrote a beautiful story of, if not PTSD, at least haunting memories, in "Lafayette, Farewell."

Yes, and the situation in Vietnam was unlike any other war that US troops have fought. My uncle was in Vietnam, and he said that they all slept with a knife under their pillow. No one was responsible for anything they did for 45 seconds after they woke up. People would sneak in at night and try to kill the soldiers in their sleep. The way that the Vietnamese waged war was really difficult to deal with. You couldn't trust anyone, be they children or old people, which lead to a lot of atrocity. I'm not surprised the post traumatic stress is worse for Vietnam vets.