4,835 words on Ta-Nahesi Coates and Gawker controversy and Donald Trump

; ) just kidding!  Instead here:

“My mother told a funny story,” says Caroline Kennedy, who is now the US ambassador to Japan, but was once – a little over 50 years ago – a toddler growing up in the White House.

“She was sitting next to Khrushchev at a state dinner in Vienna. She ran out of things to talk about, so she asked about the dog, Strelka, that the Russians had shot into space. During the conversation, my mother asked about Strelka’s puppies.

“A few months later, a puppy arrived and my father had no idea where the dog came from and couldn’t believe my mother had done that.”

The puppy was Strelka’s daughter, Pushinka, listed on her official registration certificate as a “non-breed” or mongrel.

“Pushinka was cute and fluffy,” says Ambassador Kennedy – in fact the Russian name translates as Fluffy.

(from)

From the Traphes L. Bryant oral history over there at the JFK Library:

And:

Charlie and Pushinka: