So, since it was a whole day since I’d done any serious drinking, and always wanting a good reason to celebrate, I deemed the Luna 1 Moon shot a worthy excuse. Luna 1 was launched by the USSR in the early days of the space race, January 2, 1959. It was meant to be the first spacecraft to orbit the moon. But a malfunction in the ground-based control system caused an error in the rocket's burntime, and it missed. By 5,900 km. As Maxwell Smart (Don Adams, RIP) would say, “Missed it by that much.” Given the draconian regime at the time I’d imagine mission control was a pretty dire place when Luna 1 went awry. No doubt more than a couple engineers were assigned exciting new careers in Siberia – or consigned to even worse fates. Too bad for them that they didn’t live in the era of spin control. Because while Luna 1 missed the moon, it did become the first spacecraft from Earth to successfully orbit the sun. Today they’d probably be heroes.
Having spent some time in Russia, I can report its amazingly easy to celebrate in authentic Russian style. There’s one essential - vodka – and it requires absolutely (pun!) no preparation. Unless you consider sticking the bottle in the freezer preparation, and even then lack of a proper chill wouldn’t prevent any self-respecting Russian from banging back a few shots of vodka. Maybe even before lunch. But with a snack. When you drink, you eat. When you eat, you drink.
A Ukrainian friend swears cod livers are the perfect nibble between shots of vodka to keep you standing longer and prevent hangovers. Cod livers come in a little can that looks like a cat food can. Once you open it, you find the stuff inside looks and smells a lot like cat food too. Only worse. I had no desire to validate his contention, but one time a friend popped one of the nickel sized livers in my open mouth mid-sentence. It was what I imagine cat food tastes like. Only worse
The real deal Russian vodka that we always drank over there and my Eastern European friend rave about is Moskavanya (green label). It’s actually pretty cheap if you can find it. We have stash, andI drank a few shots of it. Although with chicken wings instead of cod livers.
