blogging : little known facts : the u.s.m.c. : a pink room (of one's own)

One of my favorite people on this planet is my boy cousin, christened here forthwith as, um, Futago. We are the same age, grew up together, and have remained close through college and into our adult lives. His place and stature in my life is no small thing and a story unto itself, but I will report, and am overjoyed to be doing so, that he is back in the states and home with family, on leave from the Marine Corps, after serving in Iraq for the last seven months.

He surprised me with a phone call last night. True to form, he had several entertaining stories to share concerning military bureacracy, the language barrier, R&R visits to Saddam's palaces, powdered eggs, etc. But my favorite? He introduced by saying, "So, you'd think that a bunch of Marines would want to be watching Full Metal Jacket all the time, right?"

Why, yes. I would. I read Jarhead; I know the score. My Former-Marine-Ex considered it "motivating."

"Well, these guys would watch things like... Mulan."

Whaaaa'?!? No way. I thought FMJ was canon for Marines. That and Apocalypse Now. And Platoon. Etc.

"Yeah. I'd find Madagascar on a local channel, and they'd grouse because they had Bring It On and Bring It On Again lined up for the evening."

Futago threw out several other select titles that he had come across while flipping through his fellow Marines' DVD collections. We're talking, like, all of the Hilary Duff movies. Mean Girls. The Princess Diaries.

Shall I go on?

Speaking further of the Marines, today is their 230th 'birthday.' Here's to hoping that the occasion provides this writer a sighting of some of the boys in their dress blues. It would be a bright, drool-worthy spot in what otherwise has been a mostly lackluster, unarousing week.