Pear-shaped Puffballs

Some events are so spectacular that you remember where you were and what you were doing when you heard about them. Twenty five years ago I was in the hall just outside my office when a fellow programmer found me and excitedly said, "The wall is down!" No further explanation was needed. We both screamed and laughed at the same time. The fall of the Berlin Wall meant the Cold War was ending, Germany would reunite, and the threat of nuclear war was, if not eliminated, at least lessened. My friend traveled to Germany a year later and brought me back a chunk of the wall that she had picked up as a memento. One of those good memories from the past.