"Dad's Gonna Kill Me"

I don't read the Huffington Post so I missed my favorite musician Richard Thompson putting up an entry on military slang and the war in Iraq. It was extremely brief, but Editor & Publisher linked me to YouTube where someone took Thompson's new song and put up images from the war to go along with it. (At least, I don't think it's an official video.) "Dad" is slang for "Baghdad," the way 'Nam was slang for Vietnam. So "Dad's gonna kill me" or "Dad's in a bad mood" is slang for the feeling soldiers suss out when on patrol in Baghdad. But my favorite line in the song (which doesn't grab me, but as always with Thompson has some marvelously evocative guitar work) is "Nobody loves me here." That about says it all, doesn't it? If you want to try out Richard Thompson and don't know where to start, try "Shoot Out The Lights" (with then-wife Linda) or "Rumour & Sigh." Then LIVE with it for a while; it won't blow you away at first, but soon you'll wonder how you ever lived without him.