International Incidents Я Us

For the past week or so, we've had some of these lads wandering about the work place.

In case you didn't recognize them, that's the Egyptian Army. (No, not all of them. Just a representative sample.)

You may recall that I work for a defense contractor. What with our own government having a bit of a budget problem (which is what happens when you put idiots in charge I suppose) my employer has been shopping our wares overseas. (And no, I'm not happy about that.)

So there's this group of young Egyptian types being escorted around the plant all week. I presume that they're all officers. (I really doubt they'd send lowly enlisted types to see our stuff.) I mean it's all very diverse and international. I'm sure the pResident will be thrilled to sell some really good weaponry to these guys. Me? Nah, not so pleased with that scenario.

But seeing these (ahem) gentlemen around the work place put me in mind of a technical school I once attended while wearing the uniform of the United States. Seems there were some Egyptian Air Force officers attending the same school. (In many third world nations, the officers do the work that us lowly enlisted-types normally do in these here United States.)

It also seems that my running mate Cookie (that's Staff Sergeant Cook to you airman) and I had this rather bad habit of humming the following tune whenever we saw these two Egyptian officers in the hallway or out on the playground smoking area.

Well, Cookie and I were told (in no uncertain terms) to "knock it off".

Reminds of the time in my younger days when working as a civilian in a factory. Seems we were assembling these machines for a foreign customer (bear in mind this was in 1973). One day the appropriate crew showed up to put the name plates on the machines. One of the older guys (a World War II vet) asked me if I knew what language these plates were in.

"Why yes Bob. That's Russian."

"Russian, why are we building stuff for the g-damn Russians?" Bob wanted to know.

He actually went over and created a fuss with the supervisor. Inquiries were made, questions went up the chain, answers flowed down the chain.

According to the suits, these machines were going to the Kama River Truck Factory. For to make tractors and trucks and other vehicles of a non-threatening nature. One of the guys asked me about that.

"Uh, the Kama River Truck Factory is the largest manufacturer of tanks in the Soviet Union." Was what I understood the case to be. Needless to say the proletariat in my little corner of the globe was not happy selling stuff to the Commies. Also, needless to say, management told me to not get the workers "all riled up". Selling these machines was good for the bottom line.

Grrr.

This week I have been restrained and well-behaved. I have not hummed "that song" at all. Of course, that was so long ago, few probably remember it. I do.

Susanna Hoffs was pretty easy on the eyes back in the day. And for being born in 1959, milady can still turn heads methinks.

Susanna Hoffs of The Bangles performing live in Sydney on 22 October 2010.
-Wikipedia (of course!)

Enjoy your Friday night.