Friday, November 11, 2016

11/11

The First World War ended with an armistice, signed at the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.  When I was a boy, November Eleventh was Armistice Day.  At some point, when it became clear that this was not The War to End All Wars, November 11th morphed into Veteran's Day.  I just got back from the Harris-Teeter supermarket across the street, where I had gone to pick up some grapes, some sugar, and a bottlew of Prosecco for my wife [I drink Cabernet.]  At the checkout counter, the young man at the cash register asked whether I was a veteran.  Well, as it happens, I am, in a manner of speaking, inasmuch as the first six months of my six year National Guard service in 1957 was on active duty.  I have the Honorable Discharge to prove it.  So I said "yes," somewhat abashedly, seeing as how I never was in the slightest danger, save from Sgt. McVicker, who was a mean son of a botch.  Whereupon, I got an 11% discount.  Had I known, I would have bought more.
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4 comments:

  1. s. wallersteinNovember 11, 2016 at 4:02 PM

    That is interesting about the United States or maybe about North Carolina. In Chile it would be assumed that everyone would claim to be a veteran in order to get the 11% discount and you'd have to show a notarized copy of your military discharge papers besides your photo ID. In spite of the all the scandals and Trump, the United States is still a country where people assume that you're telling the truth: that is not the case everywhere by any means.

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  2. David AuerbachNovember 11, 2016 at 5:51 PM

    I think that's almost true. RPW looks a certain way. I can imagine other looks (whatever the age) that would not either have provoked the question nor the acceptance of the response.

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  3. Ed BarrerasNovember 11, 2016 at 6:24 PM

    An update on Richard Rorty's prescient prediction of Trump from '97. Slate did a write up on it. And here's what Rorty says immediately after the passage that was quoted: "After my imagined strongman takes charge, he will quickly make his peace with the international superrich." And now T***p is stocking his beuracracy with Wall Streeters and promising privatized roads and bridges. Apparently imbibing too much Dewey makes one clairvoyant.

    http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/11/11/richard_rorty_predicted_election_of_trump_like_figure_election_in_1998.html

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  4. J. W. F.November 11, 2016 at 8:47 PM

    Sanders' Times Op-Ed: http://nyti.ms/2epRZVl

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