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 Posted: Sun Aug 30th, 2009 10:53 pm
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Mark
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All, does anyone know where the expression, "Mister here's your mule," comes from and what the connotation is?  I see it all the time in period music and correspondence but I am stumped.  And while we are at it, does anyone else have any Civil War slang that the smart folks here could translate?  In fact, you could just post your favorite Civil War colloquialism.  Thanks and cheers!

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 Posted: Mon Aug 31st, 2009 01:59 am
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javal1
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Mark,

Believe it or not Wikipedia has a whole page on that. I'm not a big Wiki fan, so believe as much or as little of it as you like:

[url=http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Here's_your_mule]WIKI PAGE[/url]

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 Posted: Mon Oct 12th, 2009 05:28 pm
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Mark
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All, does anyone know what "franking" a letter was? I have run across this term several times looking over ACW letters. The first time I saw it I thought it the author was saying that he was going to send the letter with a friend going home on a furlough. However, I have seen the term used a couple more times since then by different individuals which blew my initial theory out of the water. Thanks for any help!

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 Posted: Mon Oct 12th, 2009 05:41 pm
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javal1
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Mark,

Franking is postage, or anything that allows the parcel to be sent. Technically a stanp is a frank. Franking has taken on several implementations since the early days. It's often called "free-franking". Some folks are exempt from having to use postage stamps, for example Congressmen, etc. Someone else (i.e. the taxpayer) picks up the tab. In the early days, an exempt person would simply sign his name where the stamp would go - hence a "free-frank". That's probably the meaning you've read, but again anything allowing the piece to be mailed, including a stamp, is technically a frank.

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 Posted: Mon Oct 12th, 2009 06:48 pm
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Mark
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Thanks for the help!  I guess I should have looked it up in the dictionary first.

-Mark

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 Posted: Wed Oct 14th, 2009 01:50 am
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Johan Steele
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Whatever you do never get water out of the sink...

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 Posted: Sat Oct 17th, 2009 02:37 pm
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Naim Peress
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It's time to get elected to Congress so that I can start franking too.

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 Posted: Mon Oct 19th, 2009 05:49 pm
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19bama46
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You could have franked as a soldier in a war zone as recently as the VietNam war...not sure about subsequent actions

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 Posted: Mon Oct 19th, 2009 06:53 pm
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Mark
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Currently mail from deployed Soldiers is not required to have a stamp. It was a pain in the neck to get used to using postage again when I got back.

Mark

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 Posted: Tue Oct 20th, 2009 12:52 am
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Naim Peress
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If you don't mind my asking, where were you deployed? I hope you didn't have to do multiple tours like many of our people.

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 Posted: Tue Oct 20th, 2009 02:44 am
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Mark
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Only once so far, but it was a long tour.  I spent 15 months patrolling Southern Baghdad as part of the Iraq 'surge' between February 2007 and April 2008 with the 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment.

-Mark

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 Posted: Tue Oct 20th, 2009 05:00 pm
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Naim Peress
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I can only say thank you very much. Thanks to your work and others like you, we staved off defeat. We'll see if the Iraqis can preserve your victory.

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