Wednesday, May 25, 2005
Mildred finds herself in Haditha...
Cash,
I was booted from my Hyatt room Monday after 3 weeks of covering the Miss Universe pageant in Bangkok. The whole country seems to be overly sensitive these days. If they didn’t want women in bikinis next to ancient Buddhist temples, the tourism authority of Thailand (TAT) should have said something in advanced. Too little too late is what I say. I know for a fact that Amsterdam would have been thrilled to take the pageant off their hands. Careful what you wish for is the lesson learned here.
I ended up sleeping at the Bangkok airport on Tuesday night. While debating whether to head back to Los Angeles, I got a call from the Boss to head immediately to Haditha, Iraq. What can I say about Haditha you don't already know...
There are no four star Mariotts, it’s hotter than El Paso, and all the TV channels are in French.
To make matters worse, last night nearly 1,000 U.S soldiers surrounded the Euphrates River city, launching the second major anti-insurgent operation in less than a month. God help us all.
To keep my mind of things I started watching a lot of T.V. The French seemed to be obsessed with Charmed and some show called “Le Clown.” –a highly entertaining, high concept piece of television.
The premise of Le Clown is essentially Remington Steel, with more explosives and a grittier story line. When our hero, Le Clown intercepts the German bad guys he puts on a clown mask (not unlike Clark Kent when he transforms into Superman). Usually a child will witness Le Clown foiling the villain and will whimper something like, “Look Mommy…it’s Le Clown.” As Le Clown transforms quickly back into a German Mel Gibson look-alike, the parent will then assure a random stranger that the child is delusional.
All for now. I'm off to visit my next-door neighbor Dorian who I've discovered used to be with Doctors without Borders. When DWB pulled out of Iraq last year, he stayed put and has been drinking greyhounds and bourbon ever since.
Keeping my fingers crossed this seige will be over soon...
Mildred.
ps…
If you think of it, please put a vote in for Bo Bice for tonight’s American Idol. The text message feature on my cell phone doesn’t seem to be working….
I was booted from my Hyatt room Monday after 3 weeks of covering the Miss Universe pageant in Bangkok. The whole country seems to be overly sensitive these days. If they didn’t want women in bikinis next to ancient Buddhist temples, the tourism authority of Thailand (TAT) should have said something in advanced. Too little too late is what I say. I know for a fact that Amsterdam would have been thrilled to take the pageant off their hands. Careful what you wish for is the lesson learned here.
I ended up sleeping at the Bangkok airport on Tuesday night. While debating whether to head back to Los Angeles, I got a call from the Boss to head immediately to Haditha, Iraq. What can I say about Haditha you don't already know...
There are no four star Mariotts, it’s hotter than El Paso, and all the TV channels are in French.
To make matters worse, last night nearly 1,000 U.S soldiers surrounded the Euphrates River city, launching the second major anti-insurgent operation in less than a month. God help us all.
To keep my mind of things I started watching a lot of T.V. The French seemed to be obsessed with Charmed and some show called “Le Clown.” –a highly entertaining, high concept piece of television.
The premise of Le Clown is essentially Remington Steel, with more explosives and a grittier story line. When our hero, Le Clown intercepts the German bad guys he puts on a clown mask (not unlike Clark Kent when he transforms into Superman). Usually a child will witness Le Clown foiling the villain and will whimper something like, “Look Mommy…it’s Le Clown.” As Le Clown transforms quickly back into a German Mel Gibson look-alike, the parent will then assure a random stranger that the child is delusional.
All for now. I'm off to visit my next-door neighbor Dorian who I've discovered used to be with Doctors without Borders. When DWB pulled out of Iraq last year, he stayed put and has been drinking greyhounds and bourbon ever since.
Keeping my fingers crossed this seige will be over soon...
Mildred.
ps…
If you think of it, please put a vote in for Bo Bice for tonight’s American Idol. The text message feature on my cell phone doesn’t seem to be working….
# posted by DH @ 9:20 AM 
