Yesterday I bought a large package of sugar at the drug store.
I also bought some coffee and some other items that might be hard to find at the nearby grocery store.
When I returned home, my wife and I had what I would call a five second "Soviet moment" in which we rejoiced over my finds, all in recollection of the bad old days when shoppers in the Soviet Union had to seize any chance to buy scarce items.
And that reminds me of George Orwell's story of the Spanish Civil War. As I recall the account, while he was in the trenches with the Loyalist forces who were fighting Franco's Fascists, both sides would shout out propaganda messages to dishearten their enemies. The most effective taunt, he noted, came one day when the other side shouted:
"We've got toast! Hot buttered toast!"
[Photo by Sharon McCuthcheon at Unsplash]
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