During Army Basic Training, decades ago, I was one of about a hundred recruits in our class. One hot summer day, we were called outside, to stand in formation, so that the commanding officer could address us. It was not a pleasant speech. Someone had tampered with the commander’s locked, glass-encased bulletin board. This was not discovered until several days later, when a copy of one of the commander’s letters, a letter that had been posted on the board, appeared in a national magazine. The letter had been the subject of published ridicule. It had warned recruits to stay away from a known house of ill repute. Since the house was in a remote rural location that had no street address, the only way to identify it was to describe the location, which amounted to a detailed, “how to get there” set of instructions.
