de facto leader of the People's Republic of China from 1978 to the early 1990s.

 

The People's Liberation Army, the largest standing army in the world.

 

See yesterday's post.  Two children born ten days apart who changed the course of history at vastly different points in their lives. 

You can make history by living, and by dying.

But what, you may ask, does this have to do with you today?  Well, if you're the largest toy-maker in the world, I imagine there's about 90 million little ways this has to do with you.

I used to know the person who had the job as Barbie's Walker -- the person who 'walked' the official Barbie to photo shoots, wardrobe fittings, make-up and hair changes, etc.  Seriously.  I thought it was either a fabulous job or the kind of work that might eventually drive you mad.  Getting phone calls, "Where IS she, she's LATE!  Whatdoyoumean the fitting is running over schedule, I don't care, I've got a ballroom full of drunken sales reps who promote her sweet ass so you GET HER READY and get her OUT HERE!"  That sort of thing.  The pressure.  Nightmare.

Anyway, my heart goes out to the Mattel folks today, processing those gazillion refunds and gearing up for the 'my-kid-ingested-lead-paint-from-your-toy-and-got-cancer' class action law suits.  What's sad is, it isn't like it's never happened before.  Just not on this big a scale.  I mean, we've all played with things that could kill us. 

Meanwhile, be thankful you don't live in Tibet.  Or Russia, for that matter.  Oh, and if you didn't check it out, you need to read the Telegraph's obituary of Leona.  Leave it to the Brits to sum it up and spell it out.