Today is the 50th anniversary of the opening of the American National Exhibition in Moscow. There, for the first time in Soviet history, the Russians were exposed to the best and worst of American design. The best included:

The overall space design by George Nelson and Charles Eames;
The geodesic dome by Buckminster Fuller;
The seven-screen film shows by Charles Eames and Billy Wilder;
Architectural projects by Frank Lloyd Wright, I. M. Pei, Louis I. Kahn, Walter Gropius, Eero Saarinen, Richard Neutra and Philip Johnson;

The worst included decadent American cars of the 1950s.

Read The Globe and Mail’s account of my drinking free Pepsi there. John Barber, who has interviewed me for the article, does not explain the origin of my term “poisonous blankets.” For that you have to see the original story.