Snow?? Nooooo . . . .

Stars & Stripes, January 11, 2008

YES!! It snowed in Baghdad today. Quite incredible. Apparently the white stuff is also a potent tranquilizer as even the insurgents took a breather to admire it. By all accounts, local Iraqis were spellbound by the wonderful winter flakes gently floating down from the sky. The last time this happened in Baghdad, it was the British who were occupying Iraq after WWII. Hmmm, I'm sure there is a conspiracy theory in there someplace. And then after the snow, it rained and then all the flour-fine dust that covers 90% of the base became mud and then I grew two inches taller as the mud started caking to shoes like hard-packed clay and subsequently spread everyplace anyone walked, with small chunks falling off as if they were glaciers falling into the sea. Yeah, that was super fun, just really a good time.

Signs of the Times

From the women in the IZ: Okay, we are REALLY serious guys. Females only. Don't steal the freakin' sign again, alright! Just go back to Salsa Dance night, we are all over there two sheets to the wind anyway looking to imagine we are hooking up with some hot latin guy named Juan when in fact all we have to look forward to is John, the pudgy and disheveled State Department policy analyst with bad breath who keeps stepping on our toes.

The Return of WORD OF THE WEEK (Or in this case, PHRASE OF THE WEEK!)

The Good Idea Fairy

The Good Idea Fairy makes occassional appearances in many offices and operations here at Camp Victory and usually camoflauges herself in the appearance of a visitor, often times from places like Kuwait or America or even sometimes from right here in Baghdad. GIF has many, MANY good ideas and is always very generous in their desire to share the ideas with you. Rarely does reality, time constraints or a general feeling of nausea among the target audience impede GIF's sharing. The best part is that the GIF is willing to let YOU be completely responsible for the acutal implementation of the good idea but will be back to visit when things are going well. The GIF, as a generally accepted scientific fact, is deep in hibernation when anything goes wrong. Whenever someone asks me why I am burning a citronela candle at my desk, I just smile.