Comments on: Child of the Cold War

By: A Physicist Grumbles About Jericho « Live Granades

A Physicist Grumbles About Jericho « Live Granades — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 20:58:53 +0000

[...] As regular readers know, I’ve been watching the CBS show “Jericho,” about the town of Jericho, Kansas and what happens after Denver vanishes in a nuclear conflagration. The drama has been so-so, but in the pilot I was hooked by the eerie and frightening sight of the mushroom cloud rising into the air. [...]

By: Jonathan Creekmore

Jonathan Creekmore — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 23:57:06 +0000

I just finished watching the pilot episode of Jericho — I am a little behind. The sight of the mushroom cloud did send a bit of a chill through me every time I it. That said, the show has completely roped me in, so I will probably continue watching it.

By: On the Death of John M. Ford « Live Granades

On the Death of John M. Ford « Live Granades — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 17:12:11 +0000

[...] Later, when I was interested in the role-playing game Paranoia, I picked up a module called The Yellow Clearance Black Box Blues. It was funny as hell, though I expect the Cold War-era humor is now dated to those who didn’t grow up in the war’s long shadow. [...]

By: Geof F. Morris

Geof F. Morris — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 16:32:01 +0000

Awwww, crap. That’s what I get for treating this place like Slashdot. [Where's the hot grits?]

By: Stephen

Stephen — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 13:56:51 +0000

Geof, you mean the HYDEsim-Google Maps mashup I linked to in the article just before the two asterisks?

By: Geof F. Morris

Geof F. Morris — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 12:35:13 +0000

And just in case you needed the chilling reminder, there's always Eric Meyer's HYDEsim.

By: Iain

Iain — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 04:34:18 +0000

That Maps mashup is even more chilling if you switch satellite view. I just did that with New York, and it instantly brought to mind the satellite pictures of the cloud of debris streaming away from the WTC site. Now if that were a nuclear fallout cloud… brrrrr.

I grew up with the same imagery most of the rest of you did—When The Wind Blows, etc—but somehow I never really believed that a nuclear war was really likely to happen. I guess I was just foolishly optimistic. But the sight of a mushroom cloud still makes the hair on the back of my neck stand on end.

By: Geof F. Morris

Geof F. Morris — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 18:31:10 +0000

Well, Stephen, I may be six years your junior, but yes … I’ve thought about that stuff a lot. Of course, Dad used to sit in a Titan II silo next to a few MIRVs, so yes, that probably had something to do with it. [That, and all the Clancy I read before I cared about things like character development and before he started filling his novels with all his crazy political crap.]

Being that I always grew up near military bases, I always just kinda figured that I’d die in a nuclear strike. I don’t remember when this first occurred to me, but it was probably after we were in Ohio, so, 1983 or so.

[We didn't do duck-and-cover. I think we knew that it wouldn't be worth the effort.]

By: katre

katre — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 17:58:14 +0000

I was a bit younger than you when the Wall came down, but I remember the Cold War era pretty well. I also didn’t have that daily fear of war, but I know exactly why I am able to talk about fallout patterns and flash blindness: reading post-apocalyptic books like _Alas, Babylon_ and _The Wild Shore_ as a kid (and still as a grownup).

By: duchess

duchess — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 16:53:37 +0000

Growing up in Japan, I never really heard about nuclear war (not being one of the powers with the nukes will do that, I guess). The atom bomb was scary enough – the images of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were more relevant to our lives than the mushroom cloud.

When we moved here, it was still on the periphery. Mainly because we assumed (incorrectly) that if the USSR ever triggered their weapons, Alaska, the West Coast, and the Midwest would have to be hit before us. And then there’s all these other places before reaching NYC. Ah, the naivette.