Brezhnev, a former ruler of Russia, was thought not to be too bright. He comes to address a big Communist party meeting, and starts:

“Dear Comrade Imperialists,”

The whole hall perked up - “what did he say??” Brezhnev tried again…

“Dear Comrade Imperialists,”

Well, by now the hall was in pandemonium - was he trying to call them Imperialists? Then, an advisor walked over to the podium and pointed to the speech for Brezhnev. “Oh…” he muttered, and started again:

“Dear Comrades, Imperialists are everywhere.”

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There was a famous anecdote that the reason Brezhnev’s (a former ruler of Russia) speeches ran six hours is because he read not only the original, but the carbon copy. In fact, there was a report near the end of Brezhnev’s life that he went down to south Russia to deliver a speech on science, and accidently gave the wrong speech - on culture - and didn’t even know it until it was over.

In 1967, the Soviet Government minted a beautiful silver ruble with Lenin in a very familiar pose - arms raised above him, leading the country to revolution. But, it was clear to everybody, that if you looked at it from behind, it was clear that Lenin was pointing to 11:00, when the Vodka shops opened, and was actually saying, “Comrades, forward to the Vodka shops.”

It became fashionable, when one wanted to have a drink, to take out the ruble and say, “Oh my goodness, Comrades, Lenin tells me we should go.”

Los Angeles Times, November 24:

Banning, Blythe and Barstow no longer qualify as “distressed” cities under federal guidelines, nor do Adelanto, Lake Elsinore, or Loma Linda.

But Beverly Hills does.

According to a new U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development list, Beverly Hills can apply for about $56 million a year in business development grants reserved for small cities suffering “physical and economic distress.”