Back from NYC
Katja and I have returned from NYC with her parents, Sergei and Natalia. Was a tiring but fun weekend. I had to laugh at S & N’s reactions to American food at a typical restaurant (we went to the 99 Restaurant in Portsmouth this evening) – TOO MUCH!! This led to an interesting discussion about restaurants, creating consumer loyalty, portion control, and how the role of eating at restaurants in the U.S. has changed from special events to weekly occurrence.
Before I sign off, I wanted to call attention to a very interesting post on some hot topics over at Moscow Through Brown Eyes. In particular, the following:
If anybody believes that the Putin-endorsed anti-extremism laws are actually intended to control the growth of dangerously violent nationalism (as opposed to a means of punishing dissenters), please contact Vladimir Vladimirovich at his office so he can put some pressure on authorities to give up Andrei Vusik and get to the bottom of the Angarsk pogrom.
I’m not one to say that Putin and his cronies have a hand in dark and nefarious crimes that occur in Russia. However, I am one to say that they absolutely have a responsibility to find and punish criminals, most particularly murderers. Whether it is due to negligence, laziness, corruption, ignorance, wink-and-nod tactics by police officials with criminals, or what have you – the President of the Russian Federation has an obligation to see that those who break the laws, particularly the most egregious offenders, are brought to justice. Period.
Another note – had an interesting conversation with Sergei and Natalia regarding Komsomol and Khordokovsky. They are 55 and 52 years old, but some 35 or 40 years ago they were members of Komsomol in Alma-Ata. Given what I learn about that organization from Sean Guillory’s blog, I’m hoping to pick their memories more about that in the coming weeks.
Lastly, I’m hoping that Natalia, Katja, and I will be able to keep an interesting journal of Sergei and Natalia’s visit to the US. I anticipate the posts will be in a combination of English and Russian, with some translated multi-lingual posts. The blog will be called Odnoetazhnaya Amerika. Our first post and photos are up, I’m hoping we’ll have almost daily entries. People interested in such things are welcome to give it a peek.
PS ~ I’ve added some feedburner links for this blog, and have to say I’m pleasantly surprised (shocked) that 90 people subscribe to The Accidental Russophile.
So, somebody out there is reading, which is encouraging. I’d love to have more commentary. Perhaps I’m not controversial enough.
Did I mention that I did a video blog for an upcoming Al Jazeera news piece?
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September 10, 2007 at 4:31 am
Thanks for the link, and I’m looking forward to Odnoetazhnaia Amerika. Of course, the best thing would be if you could have them follow Ilf and Petrov’s route from their 1930s visit. But if not, that can wait for the sequel blog, Mnogoetazhnaia Amerika.
September 10, 2007 at 10:16 am
I was hoping that you spoke about your restaurrants experience though
September 10, 2007 at 12:23 pm
You’re right, I really enjoyed Ilf and Petrov’s book and tracing their footsteps would have been very interesting, particularly in this day and age – when Russia and the U.S. seem to be becoming both more similar and more different.
So far, my in-laws have been pleasantly surprised though.
Ohh, the restaurant photos and discussion are coming, I hope. Likely will be in Russian, with an English translation.
After all, those photos of the restaurant and our meals shouldn’t go to waste.