in Moscow

I gain new respect for the art of suitcase making every time I travel. It takes a hell of a lot to make a suitcase that will survive even one journey – especially if it’s large and falls into the hands of a grad student who is too cheap to take a cab. I was mentally [...]

in which the author is puzzled

archival finds and a rant

I sometimes regret my chosen topic. I spend my 9.30 to 5 each day looking at piles of documents, some of which have not been looked at before, many of which were last seen by an eye of a historian in the 1960s or 1970s, and out of the two or three thousand pages I [...]

On the flight to Russia and during my first days here I finished Mark Helperin’s Freddy and Fredericka. It’s a wonderful book about the absurdities of royalty, media, and politics – and because it’s Mark Helperin, about duty, honor, and the joy and dignity of doing things well, no matter what these things are. It’s [...]

settling

in which the author regrets that she left her camera charger at home and cannot yet post pictures

the engine of Russian commerce

in which the author wonders how Russians manage to sell anything or find what to buy with the kind of advertising they have

in lieu of bitching

I’m staying for a couple of days in a small hotel, run as a side business by a technical college. It offers a cheap haven to students who didn’t fit into dorms by packing them in fours in studio apartments for 10 dollars a day and makes some extra money for the college by renting [...]