Sic Semper Tyrannis 2008

"The Major Won the Croix de Guerre" Alan Farrell

In honor of Veteran's Day I have decided to put up Alan Farrell's story as titled above.  It is one of my favorites.  The unit involved was really a "hatchet company"  of MACVSOG.  pl

Download the_major_won_the_croix_de_guerre.doc

Download the_major_won_the_croix_de_guerre.pdf

"Who Loveth Best" Alan Farrell

I put this on once before but there are now so many new Farrell "Groupies" that I thought I should give you another chance to contemplate the deep symbolism of this neo-Kafkaesque gem.  pl

Download who_loveth_best.pdf

"Cortez in Darien" Alan Farrell

"The Greeks. The Greeks. In our A-Camp stood, among the weapons racks and jungle plane antenna cables and duty rosters, a biiiiiiiiiiiiig white Kelvinator refrigerator, packed with unrationed Cokes kept cold by an eternally-running 10-KW generator whose cycle-setting (the gauge had been shattered by a mortar fragment one night) we adjusted using a tape-recorder and a Frank Sinatra tape. When Frank's "myyyyyyyyyyyyyy-eyyyyyye waaaaaaaaaaaay" sounded about right, we figured we were on 60 cycles and let it go. One day, shuffling in off sandbag detail with my montagnards to snatch a Coke, I took the grease pencil we tied to the fridge with a string and used to keep track of drinks drunk to write across the upper door of the thing: Andra moi ennepe, Mousa . . . First line of Homer's Odyssey : "Sing to me the man, O Muse..." That evening when I got back from LP and went after yet another Coke, I discovered that someone had written with the same grease pencil in bold black characters beneath my inscription this: . . . polutropon hos mala pola plangthe , ". . . full of ruse and who suffered many woes," the last part of the same first verse of the Odyssey. I spent the remaining months of my tour and the intervening years trying to figure out which of my buddies on that 12-man A Detachment knew Homeric Greek and pierced my vanity. Of course no one would own up to it. Yet, there was another schoolboy there with me. And that shared experience is a debt I owe to the dozens of Unrats and Chippings and Gradgrinds who filled my head with the stuff that saw me through.

"The Good Shepherd" A Review

Download the_good_shepherd.doc

by Alan Farrell

"Apocalypto" - Farrell

Allen Farrell on Apocalypto.  Sounds like a good run through the jungle.  pl

Download Apocalypto.doc

An Alan Farrell Festival

General Farrell sent me a few things, kind of an early Christmas present.  So, In the spirit of sharing....

Download for_your_consideration.doc

"Best in Show" was my favorite among these films, but the triumph of a Norwich Terrier might have something to do with that.  pl

 

Download casino_royale.doc

Eva Green?  Aahh...  Sybilla, Sybilla.  pl

"Borat" - Alan Farrell

Download Borat.doc

Alan Farrell

"The Black Dahlia" - A Movie Review

Download the_black_dahlia.doc

Download the_black_dahlia.pdf

Alan Farrell

"The Guardian" - A Movie Review

Download the_guardian.doc

Download the_guardian.pdf

Alan Farrell

"The Departed" - a Movie Review

Download the_departed.doc

Download the_departed.pdf

Alan Farrell