Runaway Successors

[steepholm]

Thomas Hobbes is said (by Aubrey, I think) to have attributed his physical cowardice to his pregnant mother's shock on hearing of the approach of the Spanish Armada. Perhaps I can claim the same excuse, with reference to the Cuban Missile Crisis? It was fifty years ago this month, and although I didn't know much about it at the time, being dug in for the duration in my uterine private shelter, who knows what amniotic alarm bells were being rung?