the golden mean

Taking three cans of carbonated soda (specifically, spruce beer) in checked luggage to St Louis was no problem. The non-pressurized bottles of alcohol were likewise no problem. In St Louis we found thematic beer for the party and bought too much (we had the right amount of everything besides beer). I brought 29 bottles home in my checked luggage. 23 of them made it. I'm curious if cans would have been a better idea, but not curious enough to try it. Packing the beer in the dirty laundry turned out to be a great idea; cleanup will be very easy. Getting on the nonstop was also a great idea; who knows what the baggage handlers would have thought about putting my bags on a second flight.

Today is two days shy of 62 years and three months after V-E day.

This is significant because at the Yalta conference in February 1945, the USSR promised to declare war against Japan within three months of the defeat of the Germans, the delay being required to remobilize to the new eastern front. Truman knew the August 8 Soviet invasion was coming when deciding whether to use the Bomb. The obvious conclusion is that we did it not to shorten the war but to make sure that the Japanese surrender was to the US, and thus reduce the Soviet influence in east Asia.

Today's news is predictably full of hand-wringing. I just wish any of the articles would mention Yalta.