LSMFT

[LARSSON at vax1.mankato.msus.edu]

And if you understood that Subject heading, you're probably as old as I am
(see below).

John Burgess writes:
"Even for non-smokers, cigarettes were a useful barter item... swapping
butts for any other commodity was standard practice.
 
My recollection, too, is that the "green" packs were not actually green,
but white with green design elements (particularly the circle around the
logo "Lucky Strike.") Today (or as recently as I last saw a pack, anyway)
those elements are now red.  There may have been a green packet, but I
can't quite remember it."


I've seen pictures of green pre-war Lucky Strike packs and remember various
comments on it by people who were around at the time.  But the point about
cigarettes is another note that Pynchon plays on nicely in one passage.

Just after Slothrop has assumed the identity of Rocketman, one of the people
with him (Trudi?) asks, "Do you have any armies?", armies being slang for
cigarettes.  But the ironic implication is that not even a superhero can
change the world on his own.

One more thing about the Von Braun quote--whether or not we think it's good
or lousy science, or just metaphor (and I tend to agree with hg on this
issue), it *is* an example of the persistence of the German Idealist position
that resulted in its own perversions via the Nazis (though they had plenty
of help from Wagner, German films, etc.  See the Frankfort School for more.)

Don Larsson, Mankato State U (MN)
"Lucky Strike Means Fine Tobacco!"