On Wed, 23 Dec 2015 13:31:36 -0500, "Robert Green"
wrote:

How about "KAPUTNIK"? Which I first heard in the Coen Brothers' "
Miller's Crossing" - do you know its meaning?

--
bg


It refers to the ill fated US Vanguard program where the US Navy tried
to build a rocket to launch a satellite that was NOT an ICBM design
Sputnik was circling the globe while Vanguard rockets were blowing up
on the pad. They finally got it going after a few highly publicized
failures on TV. In the mean time they dusted off a Redstone missile,
painted NASA colors on it and lobbed one up there.