"defecting"

[Laurence Horn]

At 11:29 AM -0700 10/20/09, James A. Landau <JJJRLandau at netscape.com> wrote:
>I heard a woman, discussing a hippie she had known in the 1980's,
>refer to "defecting to Canada".
>
>I've never heard "defecting" in this context.  Also, considering
>that the man lived in Princeton NJ circa 1980, is it even correct?
>
>OT:  from the Christian Science Monitor, referring to a Chinese
>hostage-rescue exercise:
>
>http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/1020/p06s07-wosc.html
>
>"CHINESE COMMANDOS IN TRAINING VIDEO
>In the video, after a failed attempt at negotiating with the
>"pirates," balaclava clad helicopter and small boat-borne troops
>storm a vessel and subdue its captors."
>
>Is that all the Chinese troops were wearing?
>
>      - Jim Landau
>

Somehow I keep reading this as depicting the Chinese commandos as
baklava-clad, garbed thus to blend in with any pirates who may have
wandered into the wine-dark waters of the Aegean.

LH

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