Good Morning Vietnam
A few months ago we received a small package in the mail with a return address we didn't recognize and postage was paid for in a large number of small denomination stamps. We agreed -- it was from the Unabomber.
But isn't the Unabomber in jail? Yeah, he is. But what about someone close to the Unabomber, like maybe a relative? No, his brother was the one who informed the police after the Washington Post published his rambling manifesto. Comrades? No, he lived alone in a log cabin and he doesn't seem even to mind solitary confinement.
"Who would want to send a bomb to MO? I mean come on, does anyone really hate us that much?" asked Managing Editor Mark Hammond.
Well, yes, they do, but before we could warn him Hammond had ripped open the package and was inspecting its contents.
Out fell about 20 neatly word-processed pages along with some very nice photographs of an exotic place that Hammond swore was West Virginia until we showed him pictures of water buffaloes and folks working in rice paddies. Hammond still refused to concede, saying that unless it was proved positively that there are absolutely no water buffaloes nor rice paddies in West Virginia, his initial observation was valid (Managing Editors are dumb asses -- Ed.).
Generally, we don't key in contributor stories, but the author, an Englishwoman named Olivia Hillery, is a very nice person who wrote a good story about a motorcycle tour in a country no one at MO has any plans to visit any time soon. She also took some nice photographs as well.
So, upon threat of extreme physical cruelty (or listening to Hammond drone on about how Vietnam and West Virginia do look the same, which, we suppose, is one and the same), we forced our new intern Calvin to key in all 6,800 words and scan 50 or so pictures. What you'll read is an interesting story about a land ingrained into most of our collective consciousness, yet one few of us have visited and even fewer associate without images of death, bombs and general mayhem.
We enjoyed Ms. Hillery's story. We hope you do as well.
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