Kikkoman

The local library has cds. So we borrowed The Century, a 15 cd set. I used iTunes to rip the cd’s so I can listen to it on my iPod.

What a fantastically great way to learn history.

Currently, I am mostly interested in the 60’s thru 80’s as I already know alot about the time between 1900 to 1950 from school and the history/discovery channel. (I had to read a biography of Hitler over Christmass break high school. ;-P ) “The Century’s” coverage of is very standard, eg there wasn’t any metion of the cryptographic wars.

Anyways, here are some of the more intersting tidbits I’ve learned listening to the set.

Before the 60’s you did not have first amendment rights on college campuses. If you wanted to speak out on campus, you had to get the permission of the administration first.

I had known about the nuclear missles in Cuba thing, but I didn’t know that the Solviets were sending around 170 of them to Cuba.

In the 60’s stewardesses were routinely fired/dismissed on thier 32nd birthday.

Nixon’s trip to China and overtures to the USSR was a brilliant calculated ploy to pull support away from the North Vietnamese in order to get conncessions out of them.

President Carter got out of the armored limo and walked down Pennsylvannia avenue during his inauguration.

Solviet President Gorbachav did the same thing when visting the US, eg jumped out of the car and shook people’s hands.

Pat Buchanan has been around for a long time. He was in the Nixon and Reagan administrations.