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Mar. 1st, 2014 09:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
raincitygirlI was on the main drag of my neighbourhood the other day after work, and a large, half-witted dog slipped its leash and wandered aimlessly across the busy street. Actually, "across" would be a misnomer, because it got about halfway across the street and then kind of just stood there. I was convinced I would witness carnage at any moment, but the cars all stopped and honked their horns until the dog's owner got out into the street as well and led him away. Or maybe led her away. I wasn't checking for gender. Regardless of gender, that was a very lucky dog.
I am reading Dark Sun: the Making of the Hydrogen Bomb by Richard Rhodes, and it's finally starting to pop. The first 80 pages or so were a hard slog and took me forever (because I kept putting the book down to read other, more interesting books) but now it's getting interesting. Which is good, because before I was profoundly regretting spending $17 plus tax on it.
There's a lot of stuff about Klaus Fuchs, and Rhodes quotes extensively from a letter he sent to his sister in Cambridge, Massachusetts from Los Alamos where he was working on the atomic bomb. It was striking how NORMAL the letter was. Just a dutiful brother and uncle, worried that his Christmas parcel to his niece and nephew won't arrive on time because he's been working such long hours and hasn't had a chance to go shopping for them.
When I think about it, of course he was capable of sending a normal, affectionate letter to a loved one who wasn't in on his spying activities. He was a spy, not a robot. But it still surprised me, reading it.
I am reading Dark Sun: the Making of the Hydrogen Bomb by Richard Rhodes, and it's finally starting to pop. The first 80 pages or so were a hard slog and took me forever (because I kept putting the book down to read other, more interesting books) but now it's getting interesting. Which is good, because before I was profoundly regretting spending $17 plus tax on it.
There's a lot of stuff about Klaus Fuchs, and Rhodes quotes extensively from a letter he sent to his sister in Cambridge, Massachusetts from Los Alamos where he was working on the atomic bomb. It was striking how NORMAL the letter was. Just a dutiful brother and uncle, worried that his Christmas parcel to his niece and nephew won't arrive on time because he's been working such long hours and hasn't had a chance to go shopping for them.
When I think about it, of course he was capable of sending a normal, affectionate letter to a loved one who wasn't in on his spying activities. He was a spy, not a robot. But it still surprised me, reading it.
