Waiting in line on the Westside of Los Angeles, during the afternoon Wednesday, the Little Old Lady (Herb Caen coined the term "LOL"- long before texting was invented) in front of me started to chat and, based on her accent, we inquired if she was a soccer hooligan who rooted for Arsenal. She proudly proclaimed that she was Australian.
Since all things Australian have taken on an added degree of interest at the Worlds Laziest Journalist home office because of a blog project that is pitting Australia against Canada, the enthusiasm level for the opportunity to talk with this lady rose dramatically. She did not know about the building in Santa Monica that sports both U. S. and Australian flags side by side, but she did know that one of the big movies scheduled for release in the U. S. in November is one titled Australia.
She acknowledged that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police were world famous, but, she insisted, some Australian law enforcement agencies could boast of better numbers.
Based on some reading and a recent viewing of the trailer for the aforementioned movie, we expressed the opinion that living in Australia during Word War II must have had an added bit of excitement due to the fact that there was a danger that Japan would invade their country.
She said that she had worked with the military and that on the day Great Britain had declared war on Germany her unit had been very busy because they were assigned to round up all the members of the German Bund and take them off for confinement. She said her mother scolded her that night for coming home late from work. (If starting a new World War wasn't a good excuse, the mind boggles wondering what would be a good excuse.)
During the war this lady had worked with the folks gathering information about war crimes. She had taken testimony from returning POW's. She also attended the trial of Tojo in Tokyo.
At this point we couldn't resist the golden opportunity to get her expert opinion and just had to blurt out the question: "Do you think George Bush is a war criminal?"- She didn't hesitate one moment before replying: "Of course, he is!"-
We were so glad to learn that she wasn't an Arsenal fan because anyone with any sense knows that the Tottenham Hotspurs rule!
[Is it true that, because of the AIG bailout, the U. S. now owns a majority share of the Manchester United team?]
Ben Franklin said: "We must hang together, gentlemen . . . else, we shall most assuredly hang separately."- Will that become the Bush Junta motto?
Now, the disk jockey will play the Kingston Trio song "Tom Dooley." We have to depart. Have the kind of week that doesn't result in a hung jury decision.