"Perhaps he's talking with the Czar's ghost," another officer joked.

Another officer ripped open his knuckles, and joked that it was first time in his long career he had bled.

"Oh-Army officers who don't do things the Ma-rine way," Daniel joked.

"Not bad lookin'," the officer had joked, "but totally out of it."

Another officer joked about it being some sort of electronic equipment.

The term for this was "pounding the rubble" or, as military officers sometimes joked, "pounding the ruble".

But when the final bell rang at 2:30 P.M., the officers joked that they had outnumbered students.

Her Kuwaiti friend interrupted, saying that the officer at the checkpoint was joking.

Even on the ground, she still thought the officers were joking.

My father's fellow officers had joked about how cold they found Ireland when they came home on leave.