First of all, this Modern Humorist story made me laugh a great deal, and I'm quite grateful. Second of all, I saw a Britney Spears matryoshki doll today. No, not kidding. It was inevitable, I …

One brand of mineral water available here in Russia is -- it says right here on the bottle -- blessed by the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church. (When John discovered this, he said, "I …

Yesterday I went and saw where Pavlov worked, here in St. Petersburg. It was pretty funny. So I searched for No. 12, Akademika Pavlova, near the Petrogradskaya metro station. On the way, I found out …

Dmitry Sklyarov news has been rather hard to find on the morning news program "Vesti" for the past two days. Blah blah blah, earthquake in Pakistan, raising of the Kursk, Macedonia riots. Tell me about …

I'm listening to National Public Radio right now. It's a story about Dmitry Sklyarov. Wow, I didn't know how much I missed Bob Edwards's voice until just now. "Construction" refers to Nyevskii Prospekt, which is …

This is the "I'm alive, though my forehead is one large mass of bug bites" entry. I'm back in St. Petersburg, working on the Solovki Islands travelogue. John's diary of the trip will probably be …

Last part of my Moscow Travelogue. Day the Last: Monday & Tuesday Morning. Reclaiming a word, e.g., "queer," that was used in a derogatory manner previously -- it's kind of like off-label prescription of drugs, …

"That's not blasphemy, that's just plain common sense!" -- Katie yesterday Okay, first priority is a long-delayed link to John's Journal of St. Petersburg happenings. Just another perspective. Link to it, read it, comment on …

"Want some bread?" "No, but I'd sure like some land and some peace!" -Me and Gregg, yesterday. This is more of a placeholder entry than anything else. It's fifteen minutes till my third class of …

This documents Sunday night of my Moscow travelog. Parts I and II, if you please. Day 3.5: Sunday Night. The "tsar of wishful thinking" joke was basically a refernce to some 1980s (?) song in …