Dear Russia, You Rock

Dear Russia, You Rock

I don’t normally blog on a weekend, and I’m still not quite done with blogging my “Underfables”, but I interrupt that for this weekend blog, to praise the magnificent stalwartness of the Russian people. I write to my Russian readers to say; you rock.

I am moved to say this by last Friday’s meteor explosion in the Urals, over Chelyabinsk. Those dash-cam videos have gone viral here, and the general response to them is awe. Part for the meteor itself – scary impressive – but also there was awe over the Russian reaction to the meteor. If I were driving along and saw a fireball overhead outshining the sun, I’d freak out. I’d wail, “Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God!” But did we hear prayers on those dashcam videos? Curses? Screams? Nah. And afterwards, with windows blown out, the people laughed!

Like, wow. What glorious sang-froid! I use the French word there because the French have direct experience of that sang-froid. Napoleon conquered Europe, but invading Russia was a bad move. Ditto with Hitler. The Thousand-Year Reich ended, that Russian winter. Thank you!

And now we know that even ten tons of space rock going at thirty thousand miles per hour won’t phase you folks. It’s a pity that a thousand people got injured by flying glass blown out by the meteor’s shock wave. Love and best wishes to those thousand; get well soon.

(I say this as a fellow Earthling;  isn’t it time we did something about  those pesky Near-Earth Objects? Do a comprehensive survey, then send out rockets, bombs and gravity tugs? I’m all for it, aren’t you? It’s a cooperative mission fit for America and Russia, ace space-faring nations.)

But back to the topic, which is that nobody and nothing intimidates the Russians.  Let it be known to all the world; anybody who tries to invade Mother Russia is officially dumber than a space rock.

(This includes Mathias Rust, who flew a Cessna from Germany to Red Square. He was a rich teen-age boy,  and everybody knows that rich teenage boys are dumber than rocks.)


****

Addendum, added Sunday; NASA estimates the energy of the meteor explosion as the equivalent of 500 kilotons of TNT. A half-megaton airburst. Whoa.