Check-up with Dr Strangelove

From the introduction to an interview of Stanley Kubrick by Terry Southern that was to appear in a 1963 issue of Esquire, before it was killed by editors:

* * *

Ranged around the gigantic table in the swank and spacious War Room of the Pentagon are the President of the United States and his cabinet, flanked by the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the twenty-odd senior officers and advisors who comprise the National Security Council. It is a 3:00am meeting of the utmost and unexpected urgency; USAF's four-star General Buck Turgidson, chairman of the joint chiefs, is explaining how three dozen of his B-52 bombers (each carrying two nuclear devices of twenty megatons) have mistakenly received the so-called "Go-Code," and are now in fact screaming toward their Russian targets. It seems that the commandant of Strategic Air Command's 843rd Bomb Wing, Brig. Gen. Jack D. Ripper, has resorted to the seldom practiced (and never discussed) Plan-R—an emergency War plan which gives unit commanders authority to issue strike orders in case the higher echelon has been wiped out.

General Turgidson is addressing the assembly, and has just referred to the last telephone conversation with General Ripper, before the latter shut down the 843rd's communications center.

General Buck Turgidson (George C Scott) ...And then, Mister President, the SAC Duty Officer asked General Ripper to confirm the fact that he had issued the Go-Code, and he said—

(Clears throat and reads from the communications monitor sheet)

"Yes, gentlemen, they are on their way in—and no one can bring them back. For the sake of our country and our way of life I suggest you get the rest of SAC in after them...otherwise we will be totally destroyed by Red retaliation. My boys will give you the best kind of start—1,400 megatons worth. You sure as hell won't stop them now, let's get going—there's no other choice. God willing, we shall prevail—in peace, and in freedom from fear, and in true health through the purity of natural fluids. God bless you all!" Then he hung up.

President Muffley (Peter Sellers)
(Frowning terribly)
Did he say something about "fluids"?

General Buck Turgidson
Yes sir, uh, let's see (scrutinizes paper)...yes, here we are—"We shall prevail—in peace and in freedom from fear, and in true health through the purity and essence of our natural fluids." (grimly) We are still trying to determine the meaning of that last phrase, sir.

President Muffley
There's nothing to determine, General Turgidson. The man's obviously psychotic!

General Buck Turgidson
Well, Mr. President, I'd like to hold judgment on thing like that until all the facts are in.

President Muffley
(Coldly) General Turgidson, when you instituted the Human Reliability Tests, you assured me that there was no possibility of such a thing ever occurring.

General Buck Turgidson
(With a smile of gentle condescension) Mister President, I'm sure you'll agree that it's hardly fair or reasonable to condemn an entire program for a single slip-up.

I found this essay in the book Killed: Great Journalism Too Hot to Print, by David Wallis.

Expoobident

Yet another good Lee Morgan album, recorded in 1960. Its microscopic liner notes were written by Nat Hentoff, and are printed on the outside of the cardboard case that the CD came in (it's a Japanese import). It looks like a miniaturized LP. Nat's first paragraph:

Expoobident is another contribution to the jazz argot by Babs Gonzales, the wandering, informal historian of the jazz life and one of its more quixotic neologists. As is customary with jazz phrases, "expoobident" is elastic in usage and can refer to many different kinds of situations and to all manner of phenomena—male, female, or inanimate. Its connotation, however, is unfailingly positive. If one were to win the Irish sweepstakes, for example, or fall in love for the "very" last time, one might say, "Daddy, that's expoobident!"

I photographed it on top of a math paper about Vassiliev knot invariants (but probably not the same you'll reach via the Googlelink).

The Inscrutable East

Japanese pretzel advertisment.