Several articles in BBC on Putin's time as KGB officer in East Germany. Very enlightening

[Found these articles when reading BBC ilnk in DU post about chocolate spill in .Germany. Clicked on Europe]

One story claims he deveoped idea of need for strong-man government when Moscow didn't respond v quickly to uprisings in Dresden (where he was stationed) in 89.

There's one article about finding his passport photo in Dresden archives

Aren't Nick Ayers and his firm connected with campaign/defence of disgraced ex MO gov?

Don't remember where I saw this.

A reaction to the claim was 'So he's perfect for Trump's COS!!!'

Anyone here ever read a Betty Neels romance novel?

The plot is usually a romance between a very successful Dutch doctor and a plain but super kind, sweet, pleasant English girl.

In one of the stories in Eric Flint's 1632 series, a group of HS girls in Grantville (the WV town picked up and plunked down in the middle of Germany during the 30 Years War) gathers all the Neels books owned by women in the town and sells them to an entrepreneur who translates them into 17th Dutch and makes a fortune selling the books in the Netherlands.

IIRC the this event occurs in the story about the students who figure out how to manufacture a treadle sewing machine using 17th techology. That story is in either the 1st or 2nd volume of the Grantville Gazette, a series of short fiction and nonfiction stories that accompany the 1632 series.

Ever heard of brown bread ice cream? Tried it? Saw it in a novel. It's a real thing

Internet can sure be helpful at times.

Is Cain's instant coffee with chicory available any more? In or near Tulsa?

Did the British with aid of NE really expel the French settlers from Nova Scotia?

We read Longfellow's poem Evangeline in jr high English class (in mid 50s), but I don't remember any mention of the possible historical bacground.

1956 mission to Equador--Jim Elliot and John Chau

The killing of Elliot and 4 other missionaries--there's a book, a play, and IIRC a musical about this mission and the killing of the 5.

Jim's wife Elizabeth wrote about this mission. She toured with one of the tribe who killed the 5 and who then later became a Christian. A major message of the joint tour was that God had forgiven the tribal leader's killing of her husband and she as a a born-again Christian was therefore able to forgive him too.

The play and their tour together were in Tulsa sometime in the 90s. They spoke in chapel at Oral Roberts U. Note that Chau graduated from ORU in 2014.

!!HWBush nominated CThomas to replace Thurgood Marshall in 'gotcha' move to--

--force dems to vote for Thomas.

TM was 1st black on SCOTUS. NAACP lawyer. IIRC, he successfully argued the famous desegregation case before SCOTUS.

HW cynically nominated Thomas, with a v mediocre history, to replace this giant. HW gambled that dems could not risk voting against a black man.

IIRC HW is on record somewhere admitting to or plotting with cronies to 'trap' dems into having to vote for Thomas.

Why is Saudi Arabia at G20? Have they been at previous similar meetings?

'Peace on earth, good wiil toward men' became 'Peace on earth to men of good will'. Now better trans

This is the English translation of the German translation similar to Good News for Modern Man. I have been told the German version is a truer translation/restatement--

'Good will to all those who allow themselves to be loved by God.'

I really like this.