BTW, OMG: “Dr. Strangelove” scenario/”WarGames” scenario and a smart man

Today commemmorates the day that Mr. Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov of the USSR saved the world in 1983 by correctly discerning that an alert telling their military commanders of an impending missile attack was a false alarm. He thereby averted a mistake like a “strike-back” that would have triggered the dominoes to fall and the end of the world as we know it (and please not to think we would feel fine or even still exist). Mr. Petrov, I salute you for your wisdom and quick action!

Anyone who hasn’t seen both “WarGames” (a little cheesy and definitely techno-dated, but the basic idea is still real) and the masterpiece “Dr. Strangelove” (written by Terry Southern and director Stanley Kubrick using a novel that isn’t even funny as the basis), must do so. We’ve gone into the “terrorist fear mode” and have almost forgotten the “superpowers in cold war and sword of Damocles hanging by dental floss” mode that so many of us lived through for years.

Author: shalanna

Shalanna: rhymes with "Madonna" and "I wanna," and is not a soundalike with "Hosanna" or "Sha-Na-Na." Aging hippie with long hair, husband, elderly mother, and yappy Pomeranian. I've been writing since I could hold a crayon. I started with fiction, which Mama said was "lying." “Don’t tell stories,” she would admonish, in Southern vernacular. “That's all in your imagination!” When grownups said this, they were not approving. So, shamed, I stopped telling stories for a few years--rather, I stopped letting anyone read them. I'm married to a fellow computer nerd who doesn't really like hearing about writing, but who reads sf/fantasy and understands the creative drive. I'm actually a nonconformist/hippie still wearing bluejeans and drop earrings and the Alice-in-Wonderland hair with headbands and sandals. Favorite flavor is chocolate/orange, favorite color is either Dreamsicle orange (cantaloupe) or bubble-gum pink, favorite musical is either Bye Bye Birdie, Rocky Horror, or The Producers . . . wait, I also love The Music Man. Is this getting way too specific and irrelevant yet? Obvious why I don't sell a ton of flash fiction, isn't it? To define oneself, I always say, it is good to make a list. How about a booklist? Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird Frank and Ernestine Gilbreth, Cheaper by the Dozen C.S.Lewis, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (all the Narnia books) J.R.R.Tolkien,The Hobbit/LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy Gail Godwin, The Odd Woman F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby J. D. Salinger, Catcher in the Rye (before dismissing it, actually read it) George Orwell, 1984 Kurt Vonnegut, Cat's Cradle Donna Tartt, The Secret History Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn James Allen, As A Man Thinketh Mark Winegardner, Elvis Presley Boulevard James Thurber, My Life and Hard Times The Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum Winnie-the-Pooh/House at Pooh Corner, A. A. Milne Peter Pan, J. M. Barrie The KJV and NIV Bible (each translation has its glories)

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