Coach Henry Harutunian receiving the Legacy Award in his US fencing team jacket from the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games. Flanking him are Selena Kaing, chair of the US Fencing Foundation Board of Trustees, and Wei-Tai Kwok, co-president of the Yale Fencing Association and captain of the Yale 1984-85 men’s varsity fencing team. As friends, […]
Body of an Iranian protester, murdered in the hospital by regime gunmen. Note IV line to hand and bullet wound to forehead. Trump might have prevented this. Courtesy X (Twitter) Those familiar with this blog might recall that I have long considered Donald Trump — Benedict Donald as I now think of him (with Benedict […]
Trump’s official portrait — a glowering MAGGOT Since I last wrote about Ukraine two weeks ago, Trump has turned bad into worse. In my mind, he’s turned MAGA into MAGGOT. On Feb. 28, he and JD Vance1 attacked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office in a way that — almost — makes me […]
The gently arched Hermitage Bridge carrying the Neva River Embankment roadway across the mouth of the Zimnaya Kanavka. In the background, the pedestrian bridge linking the Hermitage Museum (right) to the Hermitage Theater. A few days ago something — I’ve already forgotten what — reminded me of one of the small pleasures of life I […]
Matzah In the days leading up to the beginning of Passover1 last night, I’ve seen several articles on the web about matzah (also spelled matzo),2 cracker-like sheets of unleavened bread. That was all the food the Israelites (whom today we call the Jews) were able to take with them as Moses led them to freedom following […]
Bon voyage! (Courtesy Matson Navigation Company) A few days ago I spotted a funny story on Facebook that reminded me of something a very brave man, Aba Taratuta, told me back in 1978 or thereabouts, when I was on the staff of the U.S. consulate-general in Leningrad (today again known by its original name, St. […]
With my friend Henry Harutunian at Harvard, spring 1968 The story I’m about to recount took place over half a century ago, in 1966–68, when I was working on my master’s degree in Soviet area studies at Harvard‘s Russian Research Center. During the first year of this two-year, multi-disciplinary program, I continued my study of […]
Mayor Bernie Sanders in Yaroslavl, USSR, in 1988 Now that Super Tuesday is behind us, voters in the upcoming Democratic Party primaries will have to choose between the two remaining viable candidates, Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders. In this post I’d like to make a small contribution to the effort to keep the nomination out […]
Back in the spring of 1968 I had a big job interview — the oral portion of the U.S. Foreign Service exam. It was a long shot, and I was not expecting to pass. Still, I hoped I’d succeed, since work as a U.S. diplomat in embassies and consulates around the world would give me […]
A year or so ago, I published two posts (here and here) related to wine, beer and another, quite exotic, alcoholic beverage in the former Soviet Union. Previously, I’d created two other posts (here and here) about experiences with vodka in the USSR. Today, I’ll briefly return to the subject in a sort of “hair […]
