Content 16+
Once when I was stuck in Palatka, Florida, a truly smelly north Florida backwater featuring an all-pervading, nostril-putrefying paper mill, I took an English class from one George Kennedy, who hailed from Chicago. He was Head of the Department at St. Johns Junior College back in the very early 1970’s.
George, unlike the other professors – even those from up north who seemed to fit in well with … Read the rest
Content advisory 18+ I just caught Adrita’s article about beggars in India. I can only imagine what a nightmare it must be in places like that. Of course, the homeless and hapless are everywhere and must be dealt with one way or the other. As with the prison system, the question involves the push-pull between blame and compassion. Should we despise beggars or try to help them? I used to … Read the rest
Content advisory 18+ The great old Englishman Samuel Johnson of the 18th century (back when Englishmen were worthy of the name) once declared that “Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.”
It is hard for me to know if that statement is comprehensible to all of my readers, so, without meaning to be patronizing, let me break it down. It means, basically, that when an individual has forfeited, through … Read the rest
Контент 18+ Once upon a time back in the old days of the Wild West in America, there was a white man and a black man who had been caught while trying to rob a bank. Naturally, according to the judgment of the day, they were sentenced to be hanged. They waited in their cell for the hour of doom. But while the white man grew increasingly agitated, the black … Read the rest
Контент 14+
One summer day I packed my backpack and headed out on an ethnographic expedition. I had just passed my exams and finished my first year as a student of the Moscow Academy of Music. This annual tour involves different students every go around because only several professors are engaged yet all students must participate at least once.
Our ethnographic laboratory had been studying the Bryansk region on the … Read the rest
