Wednesday 14 October 2009

Working in Ottawa today --War on Drugs & The Ruskies

Good morning folks,
I will be working in Ottawa today.
I had originally thought about Reagan's 'war on drugs' that started this day in 1982, but then thought about the outstanding timing of his 'Tear down these walls' speech.
That was in 1987 and the speech was given in West Berlin and included rhetoric like "Who will tear down these walls?" and then something about a despot that built them, and then something like "Mr Gorbachav, tear down these walls"
It was great luck for Ronald, he was spending huge sums on the 'Star Wars' missile defence grid, Nancy was chewing up a lot of cash telling kids to just say no, and...
The soviets called it quits.
They let the aging wall get torn down in '89 and suffered economic collapse in '91.
Was interesting, the fail had very little to do with anything that Reagan did or said, but common perception was that Ronald 'Ray Guns' Reagan beat the Ruskies.
Timing is everything :)
Have a good day.
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Wednesday 7 October 2009

Working in Montréal today --Word of the day?

Good morning folks,
I will be working in Montreal today.
Not much time to write any missives, cell phones off in 2 so I'll just mention that the word of the day is
Iconoclast: it's a noun, a person, although I suppose an organization too, that challenges traditional beliefs or institutions.  
And today in 1978 The Rolling Stones were on SNL but I don't remember what they played. --probably something from the same album as 'Emotional Rescue' (maybe that was '79 or '80) odd song, annoyed me when it came out, but sounds okay in my head now ..  nope, the spoken part still annoys me.
Have a good day and stop humming that tune in your head :)
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