Word: cosmonautics
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...year simply waiting in line to make purchases. The total amount of time devoted by the nation to purchasing goods and food is estimated to be close to 30 billion hours a year. A Russian joke has someone asking a young boy where his father is. "He's a cosmonaut circling the moon," replies the lad. "And your mother?" "She's waiting in line at the butcher shop...
...Cosmonaut must first wait outside the store to see whether meat is being delivered that day. Once inside, she must wait on one line to find out how much the meat will cost, another to pay for the meat and a third to pick it up. Nor can Mrs. Cosmonaut complete her shopping at one or two places, since food shops are specialized. Pravda recently complained that "a consumer would not be surprised if he saw shops selling only noodles or bay leaves...
...When he flew Soyuz 3 in 1968, Russian Cosmonaut Georgy Beregovoy, also 47, was 3½ months older than Shepard...
Winding up his visit to Russia, Astronaut Neil Armstrong delighted Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin with gifts from America-a small Russian flag that was carried on Apollo 11 and some chips of moon rock mounted in Lucite. Later, touring the Kremlin Armory museum with Cosmonaut Georgy Beregovoy, he joked that there had been no fair exchange. Beregovoy indicated the museum's display of czarist crown jewels. "Pick one," he said. Armstrong pointed. "Fine," said the Russian. "That will cost you $300 million." Replied Armstrong: "I think I'll wait until they sell it at half price...
Although they have been lagging badly in the space race, the Russians have not lost their flair for the dramatic. Just as a major international space conference was winding up in Leningrad last week, and U.S. Moon Walker Neil Armstrong was inspecting the cosmonauts' Star City compound outside Moscow, the Soviets launched a two-man spaceship, Soyuz 9. into orbit around the earth. On board were Vostok 3 Cosmonaut Andrian Nikolayev, 40-husband of the world's only spacewoman, Valentina Tereshkova-and Rookie Vitaly Sevastyanov, 35. They were the first Russians in space since last October...