...and what else, dazzlenation?...well, the marines had wanted a reminder of the following phrase...."i am no spring chicken"...a warning that i had issued to quasi-collie...."been around the block a few times"  - see previous posts...anyway, one of the marines was to tell me afterwards, regarding the 'no spring chicken' number...."but you didn't really mean that...did you"....and what can i say in retrospect but no, i wasn't necessarily referring to the usual definition.....although of course, i had also been referring to my age and experience of life (34, at the time - additionally, i was taking more army 'martial arts' courses....increasing my military ability to defend myself, let us say)....what i had been referring to was a terrible paedophile 'joke'....made by ray fishwick...about old 60s mattresses...the springs used to pop out, sometimes....after the paedophiles had etc etc...they were then to call their child victims 'chickens'....and there's more....my birth certificate states that i was born in the spring...in april...although i had actually been born in winter - late december....see previous notes upon 'all of that'....go figure: