February 21: "The Arrest Of Lieutenant Golightly" by Rudyard Kipling

[Smiley]

Because of social commitments for the evening of February 14th (unless I take my wife out to dinner for Valentine's Day, I will not have one by the end of the month) our next chat in #readers_corner will be held at at 8:30 P.M. (EST) on February 21st, 2015 (01:30 A.M., February 23rd (GMT)), for a discussion of the short story The Arrest of  of Lieutenant Golightly by Rudyard Kipling. 

 

I am reasonably certain that all of us have encountered at least one of Kipling's poems in school (the ever popular Gunga Din springs to mind) and most of us have also seen several of the Disney children's movies based on his collection of jungle stories.  Kipling was a soldier in her majesty's armed forces (Victoria, not Elizabeth II), and he served for a while in India.  His short stories about his experiences there, although usually humorous, are most certainly based on personal experiences.  Anyone who has served as a soldier in an oversea assignment realizes that the stories meet the very vigorous standards of a war story (i.e. that the story be based on a true event and further be at least plausible).  This story passes the plausibility test by judgement by old soldiers of (as the bard so elegantly puts it) "been there, done that".

 

I laughed at Lieutenant Golightly's predicament not only because of the author's skill but also because it called to mind a similar occurrence from my own experience in which one of our company lieutenants, hurrying back to camp after an evening of entertainment, paid an unexpected visit to the bottom of a Korean honey-well.  I might recount that tale during the chat and I'm certain one of our members from the colonies can elegantly explain from whence comes the "f" is in the British pronunciation of "lieutenant".  

 

The story is available on line at: http://www.readbookonline.net/readOnLine/2462/

 

Meeting Place:

 

Webchat: http://koach.com/cha...=readers_corner 

 

mIRC Users: /server -m chat3.koach.com:6667 -j #readers_corner

 

As usual, you are encouraged to bring a friend.  I may even bring a six pack of IPA to share. 

 

Log attached here:   #readers_corner.koach.com.20150221.txt