I Digress: Damn – er, Drat – er, Darn the Torpedoes
I have to confess that I often catch up on the news during the day by going to CNN’s website. They’re a little less – well, a little less stupid – than our friends at some of the other news outlets. But only a little.
They do manage to come up with numerous bloopers and gaffes, many of which I treasure. Today we had one of the best of all time.
I’m sure we have all been following the situation with the Somali pirates and the twenty seamen on the U.S. merchant ship. The situation in that area seems pretty dire with lawful ships and their crews being captured regularly and held captive for ransom. Several navies, including that of the U.S., regularly patrol those pirate-infested waters. It didn’t look good for quite a while today. Then we got word that the crew had re-taken their ship. Then we received the disheartening news that the ship’s captain was being held by the pirates.
That’s when I tuned in, around suppertime this evening. Barbara Starr was attempting to report on these grave matters. She got through an explanation of why we don’t know much (because nobody is saying much) before being interrupted – loudly – by evening guy Rick Sanchez with what has to win my award for the Dumb Question of the Week: “But wait a minute, Barbara. Wait. Aren’t there merchant marines on that ship?” The look on Barbara’s face as she digested this and kept right on going was priceless.
I have a late-breaking news flash for good old Rick: Rick, the Merchant Marine isn’t the same as our friends over at the U.S. Marines. If it were, we probably wouldn’t be in this predicament in the first place – shores of Tripoli and all that. You should read up on it.
“Merchant Marines” has now replaced my other, longstanding CNN favorite. Though I grew up in Washington, I never knew until the Obama inauguration that the U.S. Capitol has a large and famous room called statutory hall. It’s where people had lunch that day. It took CNN to enlighten me about this historic venue, where I suppose there are many imposing bronze and marble statutes.
Maybe they’ll put a statute in there of a Merchant Marine. . . (And of course, our prayers for Captain Phillips and his family–seriously.)
