Tonight is Yuri’s Night.

Fiftieth anniversary of the Yuri Gagarin launch; twentieth [thirtieth] of the first US Shuttle mission.   Normally, my standard reaction to any kind of Commie “achievement” is to offer the Hawaiian Good-Luck Symbol, but Gargarin climbed on top of a pile of liquid explosives that he knew damned well was part of a family of man-killers, then calmly waited while they lit a match*.  So I rationalize that he probably wasn’t doing it for Communism; he was doing it so that Mother Russia could put one in the eye of the USA, and that’s… fair.  Besides, hell, we won in the end anyway.

Via Instapundit.  And here’s an extra bit: superstitions in the Russian/American space program.  Which, before you scoff: liquid explosives.  Lit match.  If these folks need some centering rituals, you let them have their damn centering rituals.

Moe Lane

*Michael Flynn for that image, I think.