Piccolo jerks the chain of a Navy SEAL.

That I met at the city compost help yourself pile last spring.

He saw a dogtag on my keychan and asked me what service I was in and I told him I was in the Army and my career was in the Merchant marine. He replied he had served in the Navy. When I asked him what he did in the Navy he replied that before he had gone through OCS he had been a SEAL.

I laughed. "How did you make out at the bar with those credentials? That sounds like a pretty good chick magnet."

"Yeah, he admitted with a semi-embarrassed grin. "When you throw the SEAL credential down the women line up. I'm happily married and wanted to stay that way so I kept my mouth shut when I had a beer with my teammates. It's a real trump card with the ladies."

I was feeling mischiveous. I gave him a smug look.

"When the SEALs start playing the SEAL card all you have to do to cut them down to size is tell them you're an astronaut," I said. "Only astronaut recruited from the Merchant Marine!"

He laughed like hell. "That would probably do it if you could pull it off."

To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY