Fragments of a blog
Fragments of a blog
I’m exhausted after being infuriated by a brief encounter with the lowest levels of the Russian bureaucratic centipede. I’d hate to go into detail; in two words, when the lowest-ranking bureaucrats have to violate federal laws because they have been…
Nabokov says, in The Gift (Dar), that Hertzen, the famous Russian revolutionary, confused “beggar” with “bugger”, mistaking the two words for one, and came to a conclusion that the English must highly respect wealth. Alexandr Ivanovich Herzen, an illegitimate son…
Hundreds of church bells were arguing. It was a Saturday, John the Divine. What year was it? Can anyone recognize the source?
A pretty interesting evening news issue on NTV. A Russian scientist who worked with Kelly on a weapons mission in Iraq says his British colleague did not seem a kind of person likely to commit suicide. He is also convinced…
I turned on the TV tonight and the first thing that caught my eye was a Russian atomic missile-carrying submarine getting scrapped. It turned out to be K-19, the one in that movie with Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson. A…
A while ago, Cinderella Bloggerfeller quoted approvingly a certain French author, Guy Sorman (Professor at Paris University, Institute of Political Sciences, teaching Economics and Political Philosophy, since 1970; founder, chief editor of L’Esprit libre, a libertarian monthly magazine, from 1995…
President Reagan tells Nancy one morning: “I had a really, really bad dream at night. I was at the 30th Congress of the Soviet Communist Party. The chairman announced the next orator: “The First Secretary of the Alaska Regional Party…
Governor Ayatskov of Russia’s Saratov oblast’ (region) said this after meeting with President Clinton during his 1998 visit to Russia: What a great guy! I envy Monica. The governor tried to erase and rewind later, but, according to a Russian…
Russians tend to believe, tongue-in-cheekly, that vodka is a remedy against a multitude of health hazards, from a sore throat to radiation. Try half a glass of Stolichnaya with black pepper and you’ll see. (No, I’m not paid to promote…
There is a Russian (indie?) rock band named Splean. Yes, this is the way they spell it in English. The Russian word splinis indeed an English loan (<spleen), sounding and meaning about the same as the source word – a…
Former UK sports minister Banks calls for an inquiry into whether Abramovich is worthy of owning an English Premier League club. I love it. I’d understand if an anti-laundering or anti-corruption unit were involved, but, hey, is it a free…
Chelsea Set for Takeover: a Russian billionaire buys a leading English soccer club. Roman Abramovich, an influential Russian magnate controlling, among others, the oil company Sibneft (and about to become a major shareholder in a combined Yukos/Sibneft group), pays about…