Revolution 1989

I remember sometime in 1988 or 1989 -- I was in second grade -- I learned a joke with the punchline involving the line "puppy ceausescu." I told it to everyone who would listen. I thought it was hilarious. That was all I could think of as I read Revolution 1989 by Victor Sebestyen.  I picked it up on a library at a whim.  (Ironic syntax, yes?)  Great book, but then I like my histories and this one traces the disintegration of the Soviet empire superbly.  For example this quote:

American monopolistic monsters believe that their domination of the world would offer the best solutions to the problems of international politics.  They consider war a peerless catalyst to achieve this goal.  The weapons makers and the brass hats have formed an alliance with death ...  postwar American leaders have always behaved like fighting cocks with nuclear talons, straining to fight Communism and the Soviet Union.  

Sebestyen points out the exact moment when the Romanian people realized that Ceausescu was not a iron-willed dictator, but a peevish old man.  You can find it on youtube.  Jeers come up from the audience.  He stutters, he stops, he raises his hand.  But it's over.  He takes off in a helicopter, the army turns on him, tries him before a kangaroo court, and then executes him against a cement wall.

The internet is amazing.  But it has it's limits.  I still can't find that puppy chow joke.