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Thanks! Just leave the money on the porch, okay?

When my mom was a teenager in the 50's, she had this bitchy girlfriend who made her cringe by the way she used guys. Once she called this boy who was smitten with her and asked him to run to the drug store and bring her a romance magazine and two R.C. Colas. The boy obligingly did so, but when he showed up at her door, obviously expecting her to reward him with, you know, deigning to talk with him for a few minutes, she told him through the screen that she was "doing her hair," and that he should just leave the stuff on her porch.

For some reason, I was reminded of that story when I read this.


Indonesia announced that U.S. and other foreign troops providing tsunami disaster relief must leave the country by the end of March and ordered aid workers Wednesday to declare their travel plans or face expulsion from devastated Aceh province on Sumatra island.
...
U.S. Marines have also scaled back their plans to send hundreds of troops ashore to build roads and clear rubble. The two sides reached a compromise in which the Americans agreed not to set up a base camp on Indonesia or carry weapons.