This Blogger met Ronald Reagan once; in an anteroom of the Bel Air Presbyterian Church. This Blogger was surprised at how big he was, thick; not fat, not muscle bound like gym freaks but working man thick, stoker thick. They chatted, about a man they mutually admired, Eric Hoffer, the Stevedore Intellectual. Reagan's political enemy, Michael Dukakis, once said he had never met nor seen a man more comfortable in his own skin that Ronald Reagan. And why not? As a life guard, he had pulled 77 people from the water, many of them lovely young ladies. And while at Warner Brothers Movie Studios, as a contract player; he had received more fan letters than Errol Flynn. As the chat wound down, he asked this Blogger one question:  "What did the Soviets make of him?   This Blogger told him the truth; they thought he was an idiot savant, sent by God to destroy them.   This Blogger    was alive when the Soviet Union collapsed, without the need of a cataclysmic World War III. Revisionist Lib

  This Blogger respects Russians; as Frederick the Great stated :” It takes two bullets to take a Russian soldier out; one to kill him and one to  stop him.” This Blogger   likes Russians; even though once, in Moscow, during the Soviet era, his incredibly attractive tour guide, aka KGB agent, told him and his brother   that they were in danger of being hit, fatally, by a Soviet car crossing a Moscow street. T his Blogger’s brother told her that he had ridden in a Soviet Car, the LADA; and that he could damn well survive any hit by that piece of junk. She laughed. That night, this Blogger’s brother slept in his room, under his bed, drunk. This Blogger admires the way Russians do business; when Soviet diplomats were kidnapped in Lebanon, the KGB paid the ransoms immediately, without complaint. Shortly thereafter, Beirut was flooded with Soviet agents and Soviet bribes; the kidnappers were identified. They were abducted, tortured and  castrated; their dead bodies strung from l

This Blogger has an old adversary, from the Cold War,    turned soul mate; this Blogger met him in    the Soviet Union. This Blogger was on vacation in the Soviet Union, with Linda, checking out icons; he was a tour guide, who became infatuated with Linda.   After the fall of the Soviet Union,  because of his linguistic ability,  he did well, financially; ; upon retirement, he and his wife moved to Sardinia ( why Sardinia? People live there a long time  Gerry).   This Blogger heard from him perhaps once every nine months; he last heard from him in May, 2022, and then again  last Friday.   He emailed this Blogger, furious. He had discovered a novel had been published  about Olga Kameneva; a novel based on alternative history. In the novel, Olga survived her execution by Stalin and moves to Australia.   The old Soviet fumed :” That is like saying Custer survived the Little Big Horn, and moved to Brooklyn to open a bagel shop.”   This Blogger was commanded to craft a Blog on Olga Kameneva