From: Hal <hfinney@shell.portal.com>
Date: Mon, 24 Jan 94 15:06:41 PST
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re:  NSA museum now open, if you can find it
Message-ID: <199401242301.PAA28586@jobe.shell.portal.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


That museum sounds fascinating.  I got to visit the NSA's so-called
"Friendship Annex" once on business.  This is not at Fort Meade itself,
but a few miles away, to keep the impure and unclean away from the holy
temple itself.

Whoever named this place had quite a sense of irony; the surveillance
cameras, briefcase searches, constant escorts, and armed guards did not
project a particularly "friendly" image.  I was hoping to pick up some
souvenirs, but when I asked about an employee gift shop they looked at me
like I was crazy.  One thing that really caught my eye was a poster which
was displayed widely, apparently a security-reminder-of-the-month thing.
This was the holiday season, and the poster showed Santa stopped at the
gate submitting his bag to be searched.  I'm surprised they didn't have
the old boy being strip-searched.  Anyway, I begged and begged but nobody
would let me have one.

I really think the government is missing an opportunity by not selling
NSA sweatshirts and such.  Recently the Los Angeles coroner's office
started selling souvenirs and they were overwhelmed by the popular demand.
Especially as cryptography becomes more popular, the NSA's sinister-but-
glamorous image could be a marketer's dream.

Hal