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July 29, 2005

Marine has farewell dinner with family before shipping off to Iraq. Stranger picks up the tab.

On Tuesday night, July 26th, 2005, a proud father offered to take his son out for a special dinner. Mark Hickethier's son, Matt, had joined the Marines, and this would be one of their last meals together before he shipped out to Iraq, for a tour of duty expected to last one year.

They decided to go to The Fort in Morrison, Colorado, which is about two miles from my house, as the crow flies. It's one of the nicest, most expensive restaurants in the Denver area. It's where President Bill Clinton ate when he visited.

The son, Matt Hickethier, decided to wear his Dress Blues. His mother, sister, and father all dressed for the occasion. They spared no expense on their meal, ordering whatever they desired, regardless of the price, including champagne, appetizers, and dessert.

But when it came time to pay the bill, they had a surprise coming. The gentleman that had been sitting at the table next to them during their meal had picked up their tab. And left. The anonymous stranger had picked up on what was going on, and picked up their tab. He'd left his credit card tab open to cover anything they wanted, and then discreetly left the restaurant, stipulating that The Fort not reveal his identity.

This sounds like one of those chain emails and rumors that you read on the internet, but it isn't. It happened right here at The Fort in Morrison, Colorado. The Local Channel 9 News (NBC) aired the story last night. I called The Fort tonight and verified the story with the manager. He said it happened Tuesday night.
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Update: Welcome Michelle Malkin visitors. (My server is smoking right now.) While you're here, check out some of my original short stories about the Bahamas, Hawaii, the Continental Divide, and the pain of being alive. I'm also selling my 1945 "Duck"(DUKW). Thanks for visiting!
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Update 2: I'm really getting hammered here. Not sure what to do. Probably need to get someone to host my site for me, but I'm short of funds, and will need to do some research before I make a decision on whom to go with. Post comments if you have any suggestions on a good company. For what it's worth, I run my site on an XP box running IIS with MySQL, Perl, and Movable Type. So, would want to find a provider that would work with my configuration.
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Update 3. I added this commentary about why the MSM ignores this story even though it has legs.

America is a nation of torpid couch maggots, writhing lethargically in Lazy Boy recliners in the dim FCC-approved glow of a fear-peddling talking head on drive-in-sized plasma screen TV. I don’t own a television. OK, my friends gave me one when the quit for Amsterdam, but there’s only one and I’m not overly compelled to bask in front of the electron beams emanating from the cathode ray picture tube.

The Main Stream Media Barons are eating their hands
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Update 4. Welcome Hugh Hewitt visitors. Sorry the web site is so slow, but I'm getting hammered. (Errr....scratch that...my server is getting hammered.) I fled my swamped PC today and took my daughter fishing. She caught a rainbow trout, but, to her, a big part of fishing is splashing around and getting muddy, and if it makes her happy, it makes me happy. :)

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Update 5. I've added a Pay Pal Tip Jar, per the feedback I received. It was actually pretty simple. I've posted directions on How to add a Pay Pal Tip Jar to your website.

Tip Jar

Now, if there were just some way I could test the PayPal Tip Jar to see if it works... ;)

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 29, 2005 at 9:57 PM