Before tonight's update (very late tonight), a few notes:
1) The inspiration for this is that small paragraph in The Sum of All Fears, where it talks about Manfred Fromm being the chief engineer on Erich Honecker's most cherished project-East Germany's nuclear weapons program. That route is slow boredom. My route is much, much more fun.
2) We'll be getting into exactly what the East German's actually want in terms of nukes in....the post after next, maybe. I feel like I have to slide in a broader context post somewhere, so it might be two posts down the road.
3) I actually considered doing this same story, but with the Poles wanting their own nuclear arsenal. I considered that just a step too bonkers to actually pull off.
4) If you're interested in great fiction about East Germany, I recommend the Karin Mueller series by David Wolf (Stasi Child, Stasi Wolf, A Darker State, Stasi 77). They are very well written with a lot of minutae. Basically the Gorky Park of East Berlin, but better in my opinion.
A few more:
Q. How do you measure the acceleration of a Trabant?
A. With a diary.
Q. What's the difference between a Jehovah's Witness and a Trabant?
A. You can shut the door on a Jehovah's Witness.
Q. When does a Trabi reach its top speed?
A. When it's being towed.
During a visit to the Leipzig Trade Fair a filthy rich oil sheik heard that there was a car with a delivery time of over ten years. Since Rolls Royce usually delivered more quickly than that, he thought it must be quite an exceptional car, which he would certainly have to have in his collection. Sight unseen, he made a request to order this Trabant. In Zwickau they were aware of this great honour, and the potential PR coup, so they immediately changed the running "Five-Year Plan" and arranged to send him the very next car off the line. The car reached the Emirates in a matter of weeks, instead of years. The happy oil sheik immediately called his friends together, opened the container, and exclaimed in surprise: "Gosh! They may have incredibly long delivery times, but at least they send you a plastic model in advance — and the best thing is you can even drive it!"
A man went into a Trabant dealership and said to the salesman: "I'd like to buy a Trabant with a two-tone color scheme please? The salesman replied: "Certainly sir, we have one with that colour scheme, plus power steering, cruise control, adjustable power seats, air conditioning, and a digital instrument panel". The man replied: "You're joking!". The dealer responded: "Well, you started it!"
1) The inspiration for this is that small paragraph in The Sum of All Fears, where it talks about Manfred Fromm being the chief engineer on Erich Honecker's most cherished project-East Germany's nuclear weapons program. That route is slow boredom. My route is much, much more fun.
2) We'll be getting into exactly what the East German's actually want in terms of nukes in....the post after next, maybe. I feel like I have to slide in a broader context post somewhere, so it might be two posts down the road.
3) I actually considered doing this same story, but with the Poles wanting their own nuclear arsenal. I considered that just a step too bonkers to actually pull off.
4) If you're interested in great fiction about East Germany, I recommend the Karin Mueller series by David Wolf (Stasi Child, Stasi Wolf, A Darker State, Stasi 77). They are very well written with a lot of minutae. Basically the Gorky Park of East Berlin, but better in my opinion.
A few more:
Q. How do you measure the acceleration of a Trabant?
A. With a diary.
Q. What's the difference between a Jehovah's Witness and a Trabant?
A. You can shut the door on a Jehovah's Witness.
Q. When does a Trabi reach its top speed?
A. When it's being towed.
During a visit to the Leipzig Trade Fair a filthy rich oil sheik heard that there was a car with a delivery time of over ten years. Since Rolls Royce usually delivered more quickly than that, he thought it must be quite an exceptional car, which he would certainly have to have in his collection. Sight unseen, he made a request to order this Trabant. In Zwickau they were aware of this great honour, and the potential PR coup, so they immediately changed the running "Five-Year Plan" and arranged to send him the very next car off the line. The car reached the Emirates in a matter of weeks, instead of years. The happy oil sheik immediately called his friends together, opened the container, and exclaimed in surprise: "Gosh! They may have incredibly long delivery times, but at least they send you a plastic model in advance — and the best thing is you can even drive it!"
A man went into a Trabant dealership and said to the salesman: "I'd like to buy a Trabant with a two-tone color scheme please? The salesman replied: "Certainly sir, we have one with that colour scheme, plus power steering, cruise control, adjustable power seats, air conditioning, and a digital instrument panel". The man replied: "You're joking!". The dealer responded: "Well, you started it!"