A. C. Douglas

The gentleman who went by A. C. Douglas on the net had a wonderful blog, Sounds & Fury. The site – the & in its title replaced with and – is now operated by an opera lover who is obviously…

Sooner than you think

Brazil lived under a military dictatorship for more than twenty years: some say from 1964 to 1985, others to 1988-89. For about five years after the coup of 1964, the generals retained some outward vestiges of democracy. In December 1968,…

Rogue cops in Perugia

In 2007, Monica Napoleoni was the head of the “homicide squad” in Perugia (Umbria, Italy). Lorena Zugarini was a senior member of that unit. They were both active participants in the railroading of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito in the…

Super fastidious but mask averse

Shaun Walker, the Guardian‘s man in Moscow (again), tweeted yesterday: Quite odd how Muscovites, who in normal times are super fastidious about hygiene (washing hands regularly, avoiding dirt etc) are mask averse. 600 Covid cases a day in Moscow and…

“Age seven is the top of life”

Here‘s the Russian artist Pavel Pepperstein portrayed as a boy by his father, Viktor Pivovarov. Here’s Pavel’s face on a temp fence around the ruins of the Gear Pavillion in what used to be the Gorky Park in Moscow. Still…

Always do you homework

An American (apparently) freelance writer writes of his experience working for what turned out a Russian operation posing as a “progressive global news outlet.” PeaceData, seemingly a leftwing news outlet, offered me a column. I should have known it was…

Too good for this life

Sobyanin seems to be consistent in his plan to make Moscow's residential districts as humanly unlivable as possible. He hates trees and low-rise buildings but adores barren skyscraper blocks based on the ugliest Chinese models.

“Boiled cabbage and old rag mats”

Orwell’s 1984 begins comically: It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. “Oh the horror of the continental (Papist) 24-hour clock! Anything but that!” sneered John Dolan. Good enough, but there’s also the obvious…

“Cosplaying Allende and Pinochet at once”

“Massive protests flood Belarus once more, as Lukashenko appears brandishing assault rifle,” ABC News reports from Minsk. As one pro-Kremlin political consultant has remarked on his Telegram channel, “Lukashenko is cosplaying Allende and Pinochet at the same time.” Another, less…