Pete Azzole's On-line Library

A fellow student I came to know from my recent college adventure discovered my homepage. After ‘surfing’ my site, she wrote me an email which said, in part, "So, intelligence... that's a very intriguing area because most people in this country have no idea what it entails (count me in). Besides the spying and stuff, what are the underlying issues and even sub-culture dynamics of people in this field? I don’t think she had any idea how profound that question is. It certainly made me do a lot of thinking. One just can’t sit down at the keyboard and promptly bang out a reply. Her question really stimulates a lot of thought. We ‘crazy cryppies,’ as the late Captain Rochefort, USN so aptly described us, have spent a whole career going about our jobs matter-of-factly. We talked around corners and read between lines. We dealt with our challenges, including "sub-culture dynamics," as part of our normal routines. Only in retrospect can we appreciate where we’ve been.

So, for my friend, being a cryptologist means many things. We came in six flavors: Tangerine, Apple, Mango, Orange, Raspberry and Irish cream. There was great rivalry amongst the flavors.

My personal favorite was Raspberry. This was a product which was obviously developed from far superior natural ingredients. It was smooth and sweet, but sometimes produced remorse. Raspberry was always a favorite of the ditty boppers. Raspberry lovers were excellent navigators and excellent at finding directions of almost anything to anywhere.

As for tangerine, well, the piquancy had a technical nature. It was rumored to be comprised of raspberry essence which didn’t pass a speed test. Tangerine fanciers were apparent heavy gamblers, often overheard talking of 7s and 11s. All in all, they were a bawdy lot.

Apple tasted like paper to me, but apple lovers were SSO appreciated for keeping secrets and when the time came to dream of one’s next duty assignment. There was a legend about apple lovers who misbehaved and were sent to isolation in a tunnel filled with cranes.

Mango was manufactured in an electro-mechanical process in which the fruit was first subjected to a powerful electromotive force, for watt ever reason, then stowed in a rack with a blower at the bottom.

The recipe for orange was communicated only cryptically to those authorized to know its composition. Orange lovers had funny names like Chad, or played with cards imprinted with Greek mythological names.

Those who boasted of loving Irish cream often spoke in tongues. The chemical compounds which gave rise to that flavor were alleged to be derived from Monterey cheese. Some claimed the origin to be from a saintly angel. The truth of all this remains open to interpretation.

As for my friend’s original question, I’m still thinking!