No Geater Compliment

I exist in madness, but someone in a fit of one today told me today "...you remind me of Madame Chiang Kai-shek". I took hold of my (self-imagined) magnificent self and replied, "You compliment me sir, may I buy you a Kamakazi."

Yes, the wife of the leader of The West's best bet in Asia during, and after, WWII was remarkable in many ways. Madame Chaing was educated Wesleyan and had developed a Southern Drawl of the highest distinction. After education in the U.S., she married warlord and "nephew" of the West, Chaing Kai-shek and quickly became the face America saw during the Japanese invasion of their homeland (a brutal, inhumane time); speaking with a Southern drawl, no one could have coaxed the backwoods families of The South to support the Chinese effort, which she did. In 1936, she assumed the role of Secretary General of the Chinese Commission on Aeronautical Affairs. She said, " Of all of the inventions that have helped to unify China, perhaps the airplane is the most outstanding. Its ability to annihilate distance has been in direct proportion to its achievements in assisting to annihilate suspicion and misunderstanding."

When her husband was arrested in 1936 during a period of chaos, she marched in and secured his release. She knew what was right and what she wanted. She organized airlifts of supplies by The Flying Tigers, she set fashion rules in time when Italy didn't rule, she was--no one remembers--a living goddess.

That's not why I love the comparison. I only deal in history here; she was GREAT.