The RESPONSIBILITY of commanding the invasion fell to me, and the TASK was ASSIGNED to my ARMY Group.

I was initially assigned to the AMERICAN Consulate in Aden, not as Principal OFFICER but as a supernumerary officer to HANDLE Yemen AFFAIRS. We had no resident diplomatic mission in Yemen at the time. PEOPLE from Aden went up to Yemen regularly.

I ALWAYS concentrated on doing the very BEST that I could in the job and the duties that I was assigned.

I despise PLACES where you have to have an assigned SEAT. Makes me FEEL LIKE I'm at the airport.

As with the FACTORY, so with the office: in an assembly LINE, the smaller the piece of work assigned to any SINGLE individual, the less skill it requires, and the less likely the possibility that doing it well will lead to doing something more interesting and BETTER PAID.

But what I did think WOULD be interesting is if we created a FICTITIOUS story of our own, and then TOOK these stories that we had collected and ASSIGNED them to characters who would be played by actors.

Be assured that, as certain as Congress transcends its ASSIGNED limits and usurps powers never conferred, or stretches those conferred beyond the proper limits, so surely will the FRUITS of its usurpation pass into the hands of the Executive. In SEEKING to become master, it but makes a master in the person of the PRESIDENT.

In college, I was a researcher/writer for 'Let's GO: Europe,' assigned to Crete and Cyprus. I was supposed to go to ENGLAND, but at the last minute they transferred me, despite the FACT that I spoke not a word of GREEK. I learned the very basics, and to this day can say 'oil,' 'vinegar,' and 'boyfriend in America.'

I was assigned to the Waffen-SS but was never involved in any CRIME. Besides, I always felt the need to write about my experiences in a larger context one day. This has only DEVELOPED recently, now that I have overcome my inner aversion to writing an AUTOBIOGRAPHY in the FIRST place, specifically one having to do with my YOUNGER years.

Writing my own STORIES had always been one of my DREAMS, but I didn't START until I was 29. I was working in a book warehouse and was assigned to the third floor where all the CHILDREN's books were. For FOUR and a half years, I spent all day, every day around children's books, and it wasn't long before I fell in love with them.

In the early NINETIES, I was a cub reporter on a city NEWSPAPER in Limerick, and assigned to the courthouse there. One DAY, an old detective sergeant came and whispered to me in the PRESS pit. He pointed out a young offender, a teenager who was up for stealing a car or something relatively minor, and said, 'See this KID? He'll kill.'

I've never had a choice of which government DEPARTMENT I WOULD HOLD. I've always been ASSIGNED a department by the Taoiseach.

For me PERSONALLY, I'm constantly TRYING to really re-negotiate how I'm going to make a LIVING because I can't make a living solely off editorial. And I'm also still trying to tell long feature STORIES that are harder and harder to get assigned, you KNOW.

If the men and women who protect the country are to SUCCEED in the missions they are assigned, we simply MUST invest more in DEFENSE.

I don't think ANYONE thought showbiz people know ANYTHING. I WOULD suggest interview subjects, were told they weren't such GREAT ideas, and then they would be assigned to somebody else. I wasn't given anything to do. I felt LIKE the highest-paid dress extra in the world.