I was surprised at the reference to the Mayaguez in this context, yet I suppose it fits. It seems Cecil was being a little sarcastic about Fillmore’s accomplishment, and it is not much of a stretch to compare it to the Mayaguez Incident. (Here’s another site describing the incident.)
It is best known as the last battle of Vietnam, but while the mission achieved its objective, it was accomplished at very high cost. Not a Pyrrhic Victory certainly, but more of a Hollow Victory. I remember the incident as being somewhat embarrassing, even though it was trumped up as a great success.
I certainly don’t want to minimize the valor or heroism of the soldiers who fought this battle. That’s not the point.
Perhaps Cecil was trying to coin a phrase, parallel to “Napoleon’s Waterloo”. If so, he was less than successful. There is probably not 1 out of a 100 people today who even recognize the name Mayaguez. Then again, I’m not sure when this classic column first appeared, so perhaps the Mayaguez was fresher in people’s minds than it is today.
Is guano a generic term for animal waste used for fuel or something? Until this column, I had never heard of guano being seagull droppings- it has always been presented as bat droppings.
What’s the scoop?
-j
Sorry for the hijack- didn’t know if I needed to start a new thread on the same column
According to Merriam-Webster, guano is “composed chiefly of the excrement of seafowl and used as a fertilizer,” although the term also refers to a “similar substance (as bat excrement or cannery waste) . . .”
RR
It should be mentioned here that the St. Paul Riverfront Corp. and other civic-minded organizations will be recreating the Grand Excursion of 1854 in which 1200 notables, including President Fillmore, steamed from Rock Island, Ill. to the headwaters of the Mississippi at St. Paul, then took carriages to St. Anthony Falls in what is now Minneapolis. A local firm plans to issue a Millard Fillmore coffee blend in time for the great celebration.
If President Fillmore said anything of note on his river trip it went unrecorded by history. One wonders just what might be known of, say, Jesse Ventura a hundred years after he’s gone . . .
Ian Fleming, in “Dr. No,” an early James Bond book, wrote that guano is the only thing of value produced by seagulls. That was proven when, in the early days of MTV, a video by A Flock Of Seagulls got heavy rotation.
Cecil never quite explained, though, what ol’ Millard did to settle the birdpoop dispute.
I wouldn’t be surprised if smoke’s associating of guano with bats comes from the film Dr Strangelove where there is a character called Colonel Batguano.
