re: #239 Wile E. Wonka

The running gag, at least in the Brezhnev years, was “we pretend to work, and they pretend to pay us.” Said with, I’m sure, a particularly Russian shrug that can’t quite be translated into English.

Remember when I met chess Grandmaster Eddie Gufeld when he emigrated to the US. I asked him what amazed him most and he replied, “Joey, my sister insisted that the first play she would take me to was a Supermarket…I was shocked to see no lines outside the market and the shelves were completely stocked!”