.
Slice and drain
I once was in a very bad hail storm in Dallas Fort Worth, Texas. The hail was the size of grapefruits, and completely devastated all the cars, the windows, and the mesh antennas. But right before the hail fell, the sky became very strange. It took on a greenish yellow color, and then grew into a bright green. What this period in time feels like is that exact same thing that I experience in Dallas right before the hail hit. The sky is really odd, and everything seems wrong.
Biden dead?
TBD...
Prison life can get to be a little hard.
In the ADC in Arkansas, you have to be on your deathbed if you are going to see the doctor. And at that, the best you would probably get would be some aspirin. But, yeah, if you are sick or dying... don't expect too much.
So what actually happens is that a lot of the time, the inmates have to self treat each other.
Do you know what a "boil" is?
It's a massive pimple, on the back, that cannot pop, and just gets bigger and bigger. And when a boil gets too big, it's really painful. Really, really PAINFUL.
Often the size of a tea-cup saucer. Huge.
No shit.
It needs to be popped and drained.
And what we would do would be extract the blade from a disposable razor and slice the boil open, and then drain it out. Lots of white goo and puss with blood. You need to do what you need to do.
The inmate would sit on the commode, and another inmate would slice open the boil and use toilet paper to wipe it clean.
It's an adaptation that you have to live with when you spend time in the slammer.
*sigh*
Today...
What is the best case of “You just picked a fight with the wrong person” that you've witnessed?
I had a judo teacher. Steve Reardon. He was my Mr. Miyagi. And also my HS English teacher. And about 60 years old at the time.
For judo, we used the same practice area as the HS wrestling team. The wrestling coach, Jim, was just a mean person and would hassle Steve all the time about inane things. Steve would brush it off. Jim was younger, fit, and a former college wrestler.
Steve always taught that we would only use judo in self defense. “Judo - The gentle way” and “Judo, the art of hitting someone with a planet.”
One day I was talking with Steve in an empty hallway when Jim came up and started yelling at him. Something stupid about practice schedules.
Then Jim started poking Steve in the chest, aggressively. Then he physically two hand pushed Steve.
I've never seen Steve move so fast. He grabbed Jim's arm, wrapped him up for a major outside hip throw (Ippon Seonage, if i remember). Jim's whole body was up at our shoulder level before being slammed to the floor and you could hear the crunch and the air rush out of him when he was “Hit with a planet.”
Jim never did bug Steve again.
What are some weird facts?
- Sand is called sand because it's in between the sea and land.
- The green and brown M&Ms are lesbians.
- We are the last generation whose baby photos weren't taken on phones.
- Your belly button is just your old mouth.
- Cats only meow at their mothers and people.
- The "ueue" in queue is silent.
- Flames don’t have shadows.
- California has a bigger population than Canada.
- "Stressed" is just "desserts" spelled backward.
- “Breakfast” is only called that because it’s the first time you eat since the day before, so you break your fast.
- Usually, you have to swipe 4,000 times to go on a date. Open this app to meet people who fit all your standards only.
- Whenever you buy and eat half a chicken, you are secretly sharing a meal with a stranger.
- There are nerve endings in turtle and tortoise shells and they can feel you touch it.
- The word "footage" refers to the fact that motion picture film is measured in feet.
- If you replace the "W" in where, what, and when with a "T", you answer the question.
Angelina's Zydeco Creole Jambalaya
Ingredients
- 1/2 pound smoked sausage, cut
- 1/2 pound ham, diced
- 1 cup onion, chopped
- 1 cup bell pepper, chopped
- 1 cup celery, chopped
- 1 cup green onions, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 1/2 tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce
- 1 can whole tomatoes, drained (reserve liquid)
- Pinch thyme
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3 cups Uncle Ben's Converted Rice
- 1 1/2 cups stock water
- 2 pounds fresh shrimp, deveined
Instructions
- Place sausage and ham in very heavy Dutch oven and sauté until lightly browned. Remove from pot and set aside.
- Sauté onions, bell pepper, celery, green onions and add meat drippings. Cook until tender.
- Add tomatoes, thyme, pepper and salt. Cook for five minutes. Stir in rice.
- Mix together liquid from tomatoes, stock and Worcestershire sauce equal to 2 cups and add to sautéed vegetables. Bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and add fresh shrimp, ham and sausage. Cook uncovered, stirring often for about 30 minutes or until rice and shrimp are done.
Ukraine Collapsing, Russia-China Alliance Tightens, NATO in Decline | Richard D. Wolff
Orientalism in art
If the USA is really a superpower, why can't the USA bring democracy to China?
First, China is too large and powerful. It’s led by a very capable and intelligent government. It has a very large and powerful military.
Second, China’s government is very strong and stable. The Chinese people fully support it.
Third, China is already democratic in a way that is much superior to America. US democracy is a joke, a sham. You’ll never persuade the Chinese to trade down.
Best Moments Of High Value Man REFUSES To Pay For Everyone's Food & Leaves
As a lawyer, have you ever won a case that you wish you had lost?
I had a client who said that he had told his insurance broker that they owned considerable collections of jewelry worth tens of thousands of dollars. He said that the jewelry had been stolen, he even had a police report.
The insurance did not have the rider to cover the jewelry. The broker denied he was ever told about the jewelry. If my client was right, the insurance broker committed malpractice.
The broker refused to turn the claim to his insurance company, so I sued him.
His insurance company settled for what I thought was a reasonable amount.
After the case was settled and my client had cashed his settlement check, he told me, “oh, by the way, I found the jewelry a couple of months ago.”
The whole case was a fraud, and I had participated in the fraud.
Because of the attorney client privilege, there was no one I could tell. He got away with the crime.
This was over 35 years ago, and it still hurts to think about it.
EDIT: according to the ethics attorney I consulted with, I could not report it as the crime has already happened. The exception to the rule is if your client tells you they are going to commit a crime, then the attorney can report it. California has some of the most restrictive rules as far as being able to repeat anything that a client tells the attorney is concerned.
MEN GET JUSTICE! Woman Who Falsely Accused Men Of SA Is JAILED
What has been the most unusual family secret you’ve discovered after getting older?
My dad was terminally ill before he died in 2011 and told me a family secret I’d never have suspected in a million years.
He and my mom were married for over 55 years. Dad told me that he had planned to leave her (nobody’s perfect, but she was a difficult person, chronically angry and depressed) about six years after they’d married. This was 1952, and they were working class, Catholic, and the children of Polish immigrants. My mom announced she was pregnant again, and he did not feel he could leave her. The new baby was me. They fought very frequently, but divorce was considered scandalous, and in their world at the time, reserved mostly for movie stars. My mom was physically and emotionally abusive with us kids. My dad often worked double shifts at the auto plant; I thought it must be just for the extra money. Now I realize much of it was to be away from her.
I have very mixed feelings about this and likely always will. On one hand, my dad had fortitude in spades, and was a great father. On the other hand, I did not have a good image and example of what a marriage should be, and I saw a lot of violence between them. One time she threw a colander of hot wet spaghetti at him, and burned his face.
My husband came from an imperfect family too, but his parents definitely loved each other very much. Many of the problems early in our marriage stemmed from what I experienced as a child. Eventually we worked things out and were in counseling for a while. This year we celebrate 40 years of marriage, and we stayed married because we wanted to, and we love each other.
One of the few regrets I have in my life (which is a very good life), is that my dad did not live to see our beach home. It’s just a small condominium, but it’s very nice, and faces out on the Gulf of Mexico. You see, he used to take me on long rides to look at lakeside lots in Michigan, and always wanted to buy one to build a small place on the water.
My mom of course would never agree to it.
Has a cop ever said something to you which was completely unexpected?
Yeah. I was pulled over for speeding in a construction zone (I was). The officer takes my license back to his car, and comes back acting almost embarrassed, asking if I’m aware my license was suspended, like 3 years ago! I have no idea what he’s talking about. He hands me my license back, with no speeding ticket and just tells me to take care of the suspension right away. So I’m sitting on the side of the highway, in a construction zone, and I ask, “So what do I do? I assume I can’t just drive away with a suspended license?” And he responds, “no, go ahead, I’ll call it in to make sure no one else pulls you over for the next few days, just take care of it”. (unexpected) [End of story]
Turned out that years earlier I had been pulled over for a rolling stop at a stop sign. I was going to contest, but with two young kids, full time job…it just didn’t happen. This was before everything moved on-line, so knowing I was getting close to due date, I sent in my payment and such via certified mail. The DMV received the payment, cashed the check and all, but didn’t properly close out everything they needed to. As a result, my license had been suspended, but aside from small print on the back of the original ticket saying what could happen if not paid (it was paid) no further communication had been or needed to have been sent.
Luckily I had saved the certified mail receipt! I had literal proof in the form of receipts and cancelled checks. DMV fully admitted it was their error, but turns out they didn’t really have a process to correct an error caused by them, so, while my driving privileges would be reinstated, the suspension was going to stay on my record…. except no, that wasn’t going to work for me. It took about 8 visits over the course of about a month to get everything finally straightened out.
Where Are 30 To 40 Yo Single Men Why Can’t We Find Them
What is the most ridiculous reason for which you have been fired?
I was fired for endangering lives for less than a 15 second conversation.
It started when I worked for Ashland Inc., the chemical company (they owned Valvoline at the time). My boss and I did not get along all that well, I still think to this day she is the worst boss I’ve ever had.
Anyway, I worked in the city and tornadoes are very rare in the city. I was a temp contractor who had been there 2 years (some were there 5+ years, entire team was contractors and they did not hire on) and so when the day came to an end and it was time to leave I packed up my things and headed for the elevators.
I took the elevator down to the lobby and that’s when it happened, the tornado siren started blaring and I continued to head for the exit. I ran into my boss who was coming in from outside and she asked what I was doing, I replied that I was leaving. She said I absolutely could not leave and that if I left I would not have a job tomorrow (I was already off the clock but still on company property).
I told her that it was not worth losing a job over, so we walked towards the shelter for a good 5 steps and the siren turned off. Conversation was less than 15 seconds and the siren was off and I was free to leave.
We had to head to a hallway like this, we all remember this from school!
She brought this up at a managers meeting two days later and informed the other managers attending that she wanted to fire me for creating a situation where I forced her to put her safety at risk by impeding her ability to get to shelter due to her having to ensure the safety of another employee.
I was let go and filed for unemployment, the case examiner was so shocked by the reasoning for my termination he approved my unemployment. I took a nice long vacation and got hired on directly at another company that I love working for.
Also she was forced into retirement 2 years later and the team disbanded.
Have you ever found a loophole in traffic court that's pretty much foolproof?
About 20 years ago I got a ticket ticket I got for running a stop sign. There was construction at an intersection and I was waved through by one of the construction workers. The officer in his car on the other side of the intersection did not see this and proceeded to pull me over. I tried explaining but he didn't want to hear it.
Fast forward 6 months, I find myself sitting inside a courtroom overly dressed in a suit and tie patiently waiting my turn. With my last name being on the tail side of the alphabet I was one of the later people to be called.
Right before me was a man in his late teens/early 20s with a short bright red hair and a red beard. He was wearing a white tank top, ripped, oil stained, jeans and smelled like he had smoked about 2 packs of cigarettes already that morning. The court clerk calls this gentlemens name, the guy stands up, and before getting asked any questions, proceeds to loudly tell the judge in a thick South Boston accent that “this is all bulls*it” and how he “does not have time to wait around all day for this bulls*it”.
The judge pauses, looks at the man, and says “Son, I haven't even read out the details of your case yet why are you coming in here yelling and hollering?”.
The man looks at the judge and says nothing.
The Judge proceeds to read off how he was driving a car with an expired registration and was pulled over for doing 30 mph over the speed limit and asked the man to tell his side of the story.
The man says “As I was saying before you interrupted me, that was all bulls*it and the cop was full of shi*t”
Needless to say the judge didn't take kindly to this man, didn't see his side, upheld the ticket, and threw him out of the courtroom.
Next they call my name, I walk up slightly dumbfounded by what I just witnessed and say “good morning your honor”. The judge raises up his hand as if to tell me to shut up. He looks at me and says “nice suit, thank you for being respectful, your case is dismissed, have a nice day”……. I picked up my dismissal paperwork said “ thank you your honor” and walked out of the courtroom.
Vintage men's magazine art.
Enjoy this fun glimpse into the past.
By Hugo Dionísio
May 8, 2024
Being an “ally” with the USA does not guarantee immunity against economic interference, subversion and sabotage, quite the opposite.
The Chinese foreign minister, Wang Yi, once said that the formula used by the European Union to manage its relations with China is “impractical”, “it’s like driving a car to an intersection and looking at the traffic light and seeing the yellow, green and red lights on at the same time”. I would say more… In addition to the confusion with the traffic light indications, the driver — for the Chinese only — still has to watch out for nails, oil and potholes in the road, which can lead to a crash or damage to the vehicle.
And who would cause such dangers along the way? Given the desperation of the actors involved and the unidirectional nature of the actions… Consequently, the exasperated and catastrophic tone that we find in the Western press, as opposed to a more triumphalist tone that was still in force six months ago (maybe even less than that), tells us everything we need to know. It’s incredible how Western emotions run riot, going from one extreme to the other in very short periods of time. From certain victory in Ukraine against Russia, we move on to widespread panic, in which Sullivan, Biden, Borrell or Macron, who as recently as September were already bathing in the good waters of Crimea, have now moved on to the certainty that Russian troops will not stop at the Dnepr and perhaps not even at the Danube, Rhine or Elbe.
During 2023 we all watched the unstoppable succession of predictions of the fall of the Chinese economy — remember, the Russian one was already “in taters — only now to be panicked by the flood of high-quality, low-cost products that the lazy West can’t even dream of competing with. It’s happening in cars, as well as semiconductors and agricultural machinery, and we’re gradually discovering, from the hysterical tone of Janet Yellen and Blinken, that if anything is falling, it’s American hegemony, whose containment strategies have so far only resulted in even stronger and more capable opponents. After all, it’s hard work that shapes character. The rentier capitalist elite of the West is too used to the easy money of royalties to be able to compete with those who have never abandoned industry, agriculture and truly productive activities.
The fact is that, in the Washington Post, David Ignatius, a researcher linked to the U.S.’s largest think thank, based on work by the Rand Corporation itself, says that analysts say the U.S. is entering a decline from which few powers have recovered; it is also RAND that provides us with an article entitled “U.S.-China rivalry in a new middle age”, pointing to the need for decision-makers to develop a neo-medieval mentality, namely by having to wage war in the knowledge that the “public” doesn’t want it; Borrell says that the U.S. is no longer hegemonic and that China has already become a superpower, something that Brzezinski had promised would never happen again; or the statistics on the U.S. economy, which say that it grew by only 1.6% in the first quarter of 2024, which shows a slowdown compared to the forecast. A big slowdown, considering the 2.7% predicted by U.S. broadcasting networks such as the IMF.
Curiously, it is from RAND itself that the best advice comes. In its study “The Fates of Nations”, two reflections are suggested which, considering their content and topicality, have no other destination than the political power based in Washington: 1. When nations stand between victory in war or national collapse (between the sword and the wall, I say), the punitive and coercive imposition of conditions is not an adequate path to success in rivalries; 2. Excessive ambition and oversized strategic scope contribute to many types of failure.
These reflections are the current portrait of the U.S.: wanting to extend itself everywhere, it is beginning to open cracks in the center, because the larger the surface, the thinner the cover; taking positions of strength in all situations — threatening all contenders with sanctions — causes those involved and those who might be the target of these actions to flee and become averse. If we add to this the fact that, according to various sources, Trump’s team of advisors has proposed that he impose penalties on countries that want to reduce their dependence on the dollar, we can already see that 2024 is going to be a terrible year for the world’s largest reserve currency. For now, gold has never been higher and almost 1/3 of the oil traded in 2023 was in currencies other than the dollar. If I were president of any country, I would do everything I could to reduce dependency until Trump takes office, considering that the prospects for Biden re-election are not the most enthusiastic.
Confronted with this reality, what is Washington doing? Failing to situate itself in this multipolar world in the making and failing to adopt a cooperative and respectful approach towards other states, preferring to focus on “a competition of great superpowers”, contrary to what, e.g., the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace proposes, in its report “The United States Policy Challenge”, the administration headed by Biden operates as if it still had all the power on its side and, lacking the strength it normally relied on, adopts the stance of sabotage, disruption and causing instability in the “business environment” of its own “allies”, when they are in the way between China and U.S.’s “national security” needs.
In Mexico, threats have been made — no one has confirmed them — against the López Obrador government if it persists in its intention to allow BYD factories to be set up so that they can make use of the exemption from customs duties applicable to the USMCA free trade agreement. The U.S. itself is unilaterally saying that the rules agreed between the three countries no longer apply to Mexico, without Mexico, supposedly a party to the agreement, having any say in the matter. If this situation isn’t proof of who’s really in charge when a country signs an “agreement” with the U.S…
This process of disruption, which aims to make it impossible for Chinese companies to set up shop, is taken so seriously that even a country like Portugal could be caught in the net and see its economy profoundly affected by U.S. intervention and interference.
Take the case of the oil company GALP, a privatized company with 51% of its capital held by U.S. “institutional investors”. First, we saw the news that the 8th largest oil well in the world, located in East Africa, more specifically off the coast of Namibia, had been awarded “to Portugal”. Specifically, the oil well had been awarded, not “to Portugal”, but to GALP, it would have been “to Portugal”, if the company were still public (only 8% are). The company is run by a Portuguese oligarch family, whose holding company “Amorim Energia”, which holds 35.8% of the capital, is based in the Netherlands.
It should be said that it would be more accurate to say that, 80% of the exploration, of the 8th largest oil well in the world, was awarded, not “to Portugal”, but “to the Netherlands”. And although the Amorim family manages the company, the capital is held by an overwhelming majority of North American, English and Canadian capital (75.2% in all). You can see who’s really in charge.
This same GALP, whose transition program towards sustainable energies and sectors envisaged a gradual move away from fossil fuels, has now announced that it has abandoned the proposal to set up a lithium refinery in southern Portugal. GALP, a profit-driven private company, is abandoning a lithium refining business, largely financed by European and Portuguese funds and with a guaranteed market?
Let’s not forget that the ultimate aim would be, with taxpayers’ money, to guarantee GALP entry into a strategic sector from the point of view of “sustainable” industries, and with guaranteed profitability, since the lithium would be explored also in Portugal, refined in Portugal and installed in batteries in Portugal. An extremely lucrative business guaranteed and with the development of important know-how. This explains why GALP accessed the 8th largest well in the world and why it has now come to say that, after all, the decarbonization objectives will have to be postponed. What do these people care about “climate change”?
For Portugal, this project was fundamental, as it would close the cycle of production and electric vehicles within its borders. From lithium mining to the production of electric cars, everything would be done in Portugal. However, there was a catch to this ambitious project. This project, which is one of the most important to be financed under the European Union’s Recovery and Resilience Plan in the country, was based on the production of batteries through the installation of a Chinese enterprise factory named CALB, which has already been approved by the previous government, which curiously suffered a judicial coup of “lawfare”, after which another government was elected, supposedly with different ideas on this matter. Let’s see how the differ.
Once again, we will have to listen to what the U.S. ambassador to Portugal said about the businesses in which Washington would not welcome China’s entry. Wouldn’t welcome is an understatement, as we know. Lithium, personal data, ports and 5G.
This is how a small country like Portugal was caught in the middle of a tectonic dispute between superpowers, in which the still hegemonic power developed a process of destroying the “business environment” applicable to its competitor. As we know, history doesn’t say much about those who are always on the defense, and so they have become increasingly closed. But that’s another story.
This example contains all the complexity, fallacy and aggressiveness of the “decoupling” strategy, which, when translated by Ursula von der Leyen into the “language of the EU”, became “derisking”. It also shows how, in the EU, it is the U.S. that calls the shots and how being anchored to the European Union, and everything it stands for, is in fact a serious brake on development. Portugal, like Mexico, like Germany, Spain, France and the whole of Europe, is seeing investment projects that could keep Europe industrialized closed down, boycotted and destroyed. Just because they are projected with Chinese companies.
Perhaps even then the Chinese company CALB won’t give up on its factory in Portugal. However, this foreseeable foreign interference will not fail to diminish the company’s expectations of future profitability and, above all, create a brake on its competitiveness for better prices. Symptomatically, this continued sabotage of the European economy and that of the “allied countries” is based above all on technologies that the U.S. wants to dominate. In this context, we should also have conscience that Volkswagen has signed an agreement with China’s Xpeng, and that a factory for the German brand is also located in Portugal. We can’t help but get a whiff of the traditional U.S. persecution of the German economy, which suffered a severe setback with the destruction and closure of Nord Stream and what was left of it. It all ties together again.
What this case proves is that today, in the West, and especially in territories that are in some way controlled by the tentacles of U.S. monopoly power (the Portuguese case proves the importance of the public nature of companies like GALP), they are limited to businesses that they are unable or unwilling to sabotage or destroy.
If the Think Thank and research institutes themselves suggest to the U.S. political elite that the best approach would be cooperation, respect for the sovereignty of others and, above all, not trying to get everywhere, it is not for lack of informed knowledge that these elites behave so savagely. Their objective is very clear, and consists of creating such an insecure, unpredictable and erratic environment for Chinese companies that they should abandon their desire to set up and trade with Europe and Latin America, without it being possible to say that it was the U.S. itself that sabotaged the economic development of countries that claim to be “allies”.
The means used range from unilaterally changing the rules, their own rules, promoting agendas such as “decoupling” or “derisking”, or, if necessary, and as Nord Stream proves, directly destroying supporting infrastructures, subverting democracies by organizing judicial coups and color revolutions, threatening sanctions and other penalties. In the last resort, war is even promoted, as was done in Ukraine and is now being attempted in Taiwan.
And this is how everything that has been said before, about open markets that close when at a disadvantage or open when there is a guarantee that only the hegemonic power wins; climate agendas that are a priority but are soon abandoned when the defined accumulation cycles are at stake; respect for the sovereignties of other countries that are protected when it comes to getting closer to rivals and are unprotected when it comes to defending U.S. dominance.
The terms under which the “national security” of the USA is defined, its protection grows at the pace of the destruction of the sovereignty, economy and freedom of its “allies”. Being an “ally” with the USA does not guarantee immunity against economic interference, subversion and sabotage, quite the opposite. It guarantees that this interference is carried out more easily, as the traditional defenses that result from national sovereignty do not exist. To be a friend of the USA today is to watch its own destruction and remain silent.
With friends like these… Who needs enemies?
Arnaud's Filet Mignon au Poivre
Yield: 6 servings
Ingredients
- 6 (8 ounce) filets
- 6 tablespoons cracked black pepper
- Salt
- 3 tablespoons clarified butter oil
- 3/4 cup brandy
- 3/4 cup heavy cream
- 1/2 cup demi-glace, home made or purchased (available in gourmet shops and groceries)
- Watercress to garnish
Instructions
- Lightly season the filets with salt and pound cracked pepper into both sides.
- Heat the butter in a sauté pan over high heat.
- Add the filets and brown on both sides (rare 10 minutes; medium-rare 15 minutes, medium 18 minutes, medium well 20 minutes, well done 25 minutes.
- Remove from pan and keep warm.
- Deglaze the pan with the brandy, add the cream and reduce to a semi-thick consistency over medium heat, approximately 1 1/2 minutes.
- Add the demi-glace and cook about 1 minute more.
- Taste for seasoning and adjust if necessary.
- Center each filet on a hot dinner plate, ladle sauce over.
- Garnish with watercress.
- Serve.
"The Worst Thing Any President Has Done in My Lifetime" | Victor Davis Hanson
Would the son or daughter of a general get treated nicely by drill instructors in boot camp?
My father was a mere lieutenant colonel when I went to Basic Combat Training. I didn't tell anyone, not other soldiers or the drill sergeants. On the morning of our graduation, LTC Dad showed up in the company area in his Class A green uniform. Everyone freaked out and our company commander approached him to see why he was there (he had been there the evening before in civilian attire but didn't make himself known). Our first sergeant stepped in front of my platoon while we were in formation to prepare to march to the area where graduation ceremonies were held. She asked which of us was Walker and I responded. She stepped up to me and asked “Private, why didn't you tell anyone your daddy is a colonel?”
I said, “I didn't think it mattered, First Sergeant.” In truth, my father's battalion operations NCO had counseled me before I left for Fort McClellan to always do my best and never do anything to intentionally draw attention to myself. He said that if they had to pull my LBE strap aside and read my name tag to figure out who I was, I was doing it right.
She thought about my answer for a moment, nodded, and said, “Very well. Let me go sort this out.”
After the graduation ceremony, I was allowed to ride back to the company with my family instead of marching with everyone else. I found out later that my drill sergeant and the senior drill sergeant had a falling out over this. DS S told me that he allowed it out of respect for my father and the fact that I had been a good trainee who always gave my best effort and never caused any trouble. The SDS was a mean little pissant who wouldn't let his own mother get a coke from the machine in the day room if it was up to him, unless she busted out 100 pushups first
So, the only nicety I received was a ride back to barracks after graduation while everyone else marched.
EDIT: It was only about a half mile and it was a beautiful spring morning in Alabama. While I appreciated the extra few minutes with family, I didn't really care one way or the other and neither did anyone else, except the senior drill sergeant.