He Was No Chicken from Kiev

Friday is the 76th birthday, give or take a trombone, of Pavel Romanovich Popovich. If you say who, that just shows how far the mighty have fallen, and in Popovich's case, that's mighty far, a good 60+ miles from space. For you see Romanovich Popovich did not inspire the thrilling 1970s Milton-Bradley boardgame Which Witch? (or, in Ukrainian, Vich Vich?), but instead was a cosmonaut years before anyone in America even drank cosmos, and therefore he helped create the great cocktail race, which, of course, neither country won as both fell drunk long before the finish line (correct, Mr. Yeltsin?). Alas, some still long for the days when the Cold War referred to who had a better-iced shaker and M.A.D. stood for Mutual Assured Drunkeness, later to be followed by the Reagan innovation S.D.I.--the Shit-faced Drunk Initiative. Of course others long for this blurb to return to its focus. History is messy that way, Popoviching off, and leaving all of us with a a serious carpet cleaning bill.