'BODEDEREK

Noor Inayat Khan Alias Nora Baker, and codenamed Madeleine, was a beautiful and talented princess.  Before the war, she had bagged a degree in Child Psychology, had written a lot of poetry, as well as many children's stories.  Her stories appeared in Paris newspapers and on French radio.  By the time she was twenty five years old, her book, Twenty Jataka Tales, had been published in France, Britain and the United States.  Noor was also an accomplished musician.  Her greatest love was music and she was said to have played the harp beautifully. WW2 began the same year her book was published, and during 1940, Germany invaded France.  Noor and her family became refugees and just managed to get on the last boat leaving the French coast for Britain. She joined the Women's Auxiliary Air Force and trained to become a wireless operator. Her excellent radio skills and fluent French brought her to the attention of SOE (The...

Britain's Finest Female Spy This lady risked her life so many times, solved problems by creating solutions, and many times acted as a catalyst to bring about, and in many cases, brilliant solutions to the problem of the Nazis during the second world war. She died after the war in June 1952, murdered by someone she thought was her friend, it was totally unexpected.  To be murdered by a friend during the peace. A feat her professional enemies, crack troops, double agents and the Gestapo tried to achieve and failed to do, every single time.  She was at one time, at the top of the Gestapo most wanted list during World War 2. Christine Granville O.B.E.,  George Medal and the Croix de Guerre, was the daughter of a Polish Count, Jerzy Skarbek. Her real name was Maria Krystyna Skarbek. The amazing exploits of Prime Minister Winston Churchill's favourite spy is recounted by the British documentary series, Secret War, below. It's not a stretch to speculate t...

KGB Agent  Aldrich Ames Is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole at a Federal Correctional Institution in the United States of America for a most egregious crime, espionage. Rick had CIA in his blood. His father had worked for the company as an analyst in Turkey.  Rick joined up in 1962... The job took him places. Mexico City, New York, Paris, Rome.  His Russian was better than good, so he could hang out, mingle and hobnob with the Soviets assigned to the UN. As Chief of Soviet Branch of the Counter-Intelligence Division for the CIA, his hobnobbing with Soviets wouldn't have seemed suspicious to colleagues. Sometime in 1985, CIA officer Aldrich (Rick) Ames walked into a Soviet embassy with a massive amount of classified CIA documents under his coat for the KGB.  A present, to show his good faith.  He knew the documents would convince of his good intentions, trustworthiness and loyalty to the KGB, after they h...

Short Stories, Music News, Humour and anything else that comes to mind... THE ABNORMAL BEAUTY COMPANY What has one got to do with the other? Nothing. I'm just messing with you! It's holiday season. Put away your handset and say hello to anyone within polite speaking distance. Just try it. Dare yourself. Now, let's eat. Happy Holidays! (The original intent was to post in  MusicArtinDesign , tossed a coin and here we are)

Of Uruguay Jose Alberto "Pepe" Mujica Cordano was no ordinary president.  When he was president, he didn't only talk the talk, he walked it as well.  In a world that's full of frivolities, egotism and superficiality, this is one man humanity should be proud to look up to and emulate. We are living at a time when people are inspired and even encouraged to chase wealth and power in what I read somewhere described as; "an almost sociopathic way."  It should rather be a time to encourage each other to be rich in mind, body and spirit. A time when the needs of everyone should supersede the wants of the few. Reggae legend Bob Marley's quote that "Some people are so poor all they have is money" puts former president Mujica's perspective and words into sharper focus. Jose Mujica says the following... "The way we live and our values are the expression of the society we live in. And we cling to that. It doesn't matter i...

Short Stories, Music News, Humour and anything else that comes to mind... Unknown Author At the conclusion of the sermon, the worshipers filed out of the sanctuary to greet the minister. As one of them left, he shook the minister's hand, thanked him for the sermon and said, "Thanks for the message, Reverend. You know, you must be smarter than Einstein." Beaming with pride, the minister said, "Why, thank you, brother!" As the week went by, the minister began to think about the man's compliment.  The more he thought, the more he became baffled as to why anyone would deem him smarter than Einstein.  So he decided to ask the man the following Sunday. The next Sunday he asked the parishioner if he remembered the previous Sunday's comment about the sermon. The parishioner replied that he did. The minister asked: "Exactly what did you mean that I must be smarter than Einstein?" The man replied, "...