Stop Worrying

On This Day In History
1963: United States and Soviet Union agree to establish a nuclear "hotline."

Quote Of The Day
"The hotline will remain an important tool for as long as these two sides have submarines roaming the oceans and missiles pointed at each other."
(Robert Gates, former C.I.A. director and defense secretary)

WOPR: Do you want to play a game?
Esper: Let's play global thermonuclear war.
WOPR: How about a nice game of Six Degrees Of Separation? 

I can get from my latest read* to the nuclear hotline with four degrees of separation. (Actually, I can do it with three but the three degrees one is a bit naff.)


* a good book, but I'm getting rather tired of Mr. Clarke's need to remind the reader every third paragraph or so that one of his main protagonists is a black man. He can also congratulate himself on being progressive enough to have a strong, independent career woman as another main protagonist but, of course, she has to be a shrewish pain in the bum as well.

Whoops Apocalypse