Folks,

MG:

I'm so pleased that we inveigled you into posting that delightful romp through the snows of a distant yesterday. Your skill with words, not of your native tongue, continue to amaze me. Thank you for posting it my friend. It has been filed with your other two fine stories and I hope that if we continue here through other Christmas seasons to come that we can post it again and again.

Yes, there were privates then. And that reminds me of a little ribald English ditty that a pal of Archie Leach (that's Cary Grant to you lot) told me about. He said Cary used to love to sing the following verse to the tune of "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean".

I'm also told that Mr. Grant had a strangely ribald sense of humor, scatological in nature. According to my source, he loved 'fart' stories and actually had a collection of fart noise-making devices. Who knew? Alas, unlike my own writing, the following has nothing particularly loud or smelly about it.

I once had a box of tin soldiers
I knocked off the General's head
I broke all the sergeants and corporals,
Now I play with my privates instead.

Quite rude.