Another Manic Monday...

Got to see the 1st Iraqi Chemical Company (of the new Iraqi Army) graduate from their training today.  They had a full band that played.  I am used to having these trumpeters at the gates of the individual Iraqi camps when an important Officer visits, but those guys are pretty much just handed a trumpet and told to blow...these guys could play.  And, since this was a company of soldiers that all know each other, the graduation got rather spirited with chanting and dancing and all kinds of stuff.  They are some awards handing out, gift-giving folks.  And to them, the left hand is a dirty thing...so they try to never touch anything that they give to others with their left hand.  So to watch the Salute, shake hand, certificate pass all occur with the right hand is certainly a site to see.  At times, the band was playing, the announcer was calling up graduates, the soldiers were dancing and clapping...it was a regular three-ringed circus!  They even had a short break for Pepsi and cake for us senior-ranking people.

More on the left hand thing...Apparently, they do something while they squat over the porcelain--lets call it a hole in the ground--with that left hand that makes it "unclean."  I am not really sure what they do in there, or even HOW they do it.  There is no toilet paper, just a porcelain hole in the ground, a spigot, a pitcher, and a thing that flushes.  To me it seems like the "Three Sea Shells" in that Sylvester Stallone movie...I once asked one of the guys what I was supposed to do, since there was no toilet paper and he responded that was what the water was for...I held it.  I am still, to this day, confused on how these guys take a dump.  I guess it is what you grow up with.  I know that if we installed toilets in all of the stalls, they wouldn't use them.  They would do the old female hover thing and end up making things more dirty than with just that porcelain hole.  To them, it is far more disgusting to sit on a seat that someone else sat on, than to get poop on their left hand. They do wash up afterwards, so not sure why they still find the left hand disgusting...I find the whole thing disgusting, and I am personally thankful for proper toilets.

Cubs Trivia Question:  Who was the last Cubs player to hit 15 or more Triples in a single season?  Answer tomorrow.

Random Movie Quote:  A way out west there was a fella,

             fella I want to tell you about, fella 
                         by the name of Jeff Lebowski.  At 
                         least, that was the handle his lovin' 
                         parents gave him, but he never had 
                         much use for it himself.  This 
                         Lebowski, he called himself the Dude.  
                         Now, Dude, that's a name no one would 
                         self-apply where I come from.  But 
                         then, there was a lot about the Dude 
                         that didn't make a whole lot of sense 
                         to me.  And a lot about where he 
                         lived, like- wise.  But then again, 
                         maybe that's why I found the place 
                         s'durned innarestin'."

Glad you stopped by tonight...

Later