“Unable to burn”

Ron Charles, a literary critic, writes in the Washington Post of his approach to modern poetry: …I stopped demanding that every poem yield its concealed meaning… Instead I just read — often aloud — letting the words flow over me…

A reading list on Xinjiang

After writing these two posts on Xinjiang, I did some more searching for a comprehensive introduction into the history, geography and culture of the region. I can’t say I found what I’d set out for but I came across this:…

The system works

A recount in Wisconsin’s two largest counties (by population) ended with Biden gaining a net of 87 votes over Trump. Together, the two counties make up 26% of the state’s population. Biden’s statewide margin of victory is about 20,600 votes.…

Ruins of a Theater

At the Vereshchagin retrospective in 2018, I spent some time staring at a painting of a ruined Chinese theater somewhere in Central Asia. After posting these notes on Altishar and Kashgaria, I wondered if had Vereshchagin found his theatrical ruins…

Altishahr, Beshbalik, and Yettishar

In a text to accompany an exhibition of visual works by the artist Mikray Pida, Edward Luttwak wrote: Mikray Pida’s art is her own transcendental creation, yet it is not irrelevant that she is an Uighur, that being a rather…

Moorhens, coots and shovelers

Since I wrote about ruddy shelducks appearing in Moscow ponds alongside mallards (the default waterfowl, so to say), I’ve learned of four other bird species recently spotted in the city. Mandarin ducks seem to have made it to Moscow from…

Childish in the worst sense of the word

Last Friday, I wrote that election fraud isn’t all that easy to pull off even in a polity dominated by a single party. Even in Russia. Now think about a fiercely competitive environment such as a swing state, like Georgia,…

Election fraud? Seriously?

Up until recently, Putin’s regime committed fraud at every important election. It wasn’t that easy, even though the perpetrators were told they would never face prosecution. In fact, having independent or opposition party observers at polling stations all but closed…

Judge Barrett’s eloquence

Dr. Bedřich Welfer is an episodic but memorable character in Jaroslav Hašek’s great novel, The Good Soldier Švejk. Welfer’s uncle left him a generous allowance in his will, enabling the lucky nephew to remain a student of medicine for as…