jfv wrote: Mon Jul 08, 2024 7:13 pm random shit on YouTube had me laughing out loud for like 5 minutes.

Can’t promise it works for everyone. I had my wife listen to it and she was just annoyed and pissed off.

In 1991, after the anti-Ceaucescu coup staged by the nomenklatura itself, the Romanian secret police apparatus, of course, remained fully operative, pursuing its business as usual. However, the effort of the secret police to project a new, kinder, image of itself, in step with the new 'democratic' times, resulted in some uncanny episodes.

An American friend of mine, who was in Bucharest on a Fulbright scholarship at the time, called home a week after his arrival and told his girlfriend that he was now in a poor but friendly country, where people were pleasant and eager to learn.

After he hung up, the phone immediately rang; he picked up the receiver, and a voice told him in slightly awkward English that this was the secret police officer whose duty it was to listen to his phone conversation, and he wanted to thank him for the nice things he had said about Romania - he wished him a pleasant stay and said goodbye.