Here's the thing - don't expect me to be enthused about someone who cozys up to a mass murderer.

[MADem]

458. That guy was out the door regardless of Von Braun, I suspect. I know you think otherwise, but

my sense is that he either quit or was pink slipped. Despite expectations, he could have avoided the encounter easily, with a plausible excuse, too. Households can and do get the flu--it's an easy excuse. Flat tires in the days before cell phones and AAA worked well, too. And of course, there's always the ill auntie or other obscure relative who has gotten sick or died.

Anyone who falls on their sword in that fashion isn't operating with good judgment, that's why it just doesn't ring true with me. "Hey, look at me, i have no sense of loyalty to my bosses OR a notion of propriety! AND I am so exorcised that I'm willing to lose my job, take one with LESS pay, all for the sole goal of making a brief and rude remark to a guy who won't care or remember it, and who knows full well what he was, what he did, and for whom he worked! Yeah...that'll 'show' him!"

I get the sense you were told a bit of family fiction by those folks. But hey, who knows? Like Judy Tenuda used to say "It coulda happened!"

I mean, really--no one had "love" for Von Braun. What we sought was his brain and his rocketeering skills. And we knew if we didn't snatch him up, the Russians would have so done without compunction. People forget the days of Duck and Cover and Mutually Assured Destruction. That shit, and the sense of fear it engendered, made Nahn Wun Wun look like a playground.