User:Stasi2

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stasi2

lives in Northern Virginia within sight of the Washington Monument.

Since the name "Stasi" has (unintended) unsavory antecedents, a note of explanation is in order:

The name"Stasi" is that of a favorite pet Bernese Mountain Dog, which was in turn, named after a dog owned by Konrad Lorenz, the famed Austrian ethologist. I presume that Lorenz was well aware of the infamous East German secret police force and that naming his own dog "Stasi" was a gesture of contempt for those policemen. Lorenz named another of his dogs "Tito", recalling the dictator of former Yugoslavia. Recall that both the Stasi and dictator Tito were not only contemporaries of Lorenz but unwelcome next-door-neighbors as well.

Just to complicate matters a bit further, Lorenz has been accused of being a Nazi collaborator. I'm getting a bit weary of defense at this point, so I'll just say that I doubt that Lorenz's dogs collaborated. I know my Stasi didn't.

History:

US Navy, 5 years, WWII and Korean War; apprentice Seaman to Lieutenant.

Chemist, 5 years, Monsanto (analytical chemistry) and US Naval Ordnance Lab (electrochemistry)

Foreign Service Officer with consular postings at US Consulate, Nogales and Consulate General in Guaqaquil. Diplomatic postings at US Embassies Mexico City, London, Belgrade and Tel Aviv. Secretary, U. S. Section, International Boundary and Water Commission, U.S. - Mexico. First Secretary.

Languages - fluent in English & Spanish.

Leisure interests:

Good writing, essays, fiction including mysteries. Good movies and some rather bad ones. Good beer (no Bud,no Miller etc but yes to porter, stout, brown ale and micro-brewery lagers). Fine cheeses and gourmet foods generally plus not-so-fine foods such as beans, chitterlings,corn tortillas. Fine scotch whiskey, Speyside malts, Bombay Sapphire Gin, cigarettes, cigars, pipe.