My family had a few guests over from Russia. Seems like the holidays season is guest-mania. My half-brother from moscow (and his family) is visiting, and as a result, a cascade of people are coming to the house to say hi and what not.
This always starts and ends the same way- Drinks and more drinks. Two choices of drink- vodka or cognac.
Backstory aside, when the Russian start drinking the anti-social, xenophobic mask falls away and the jocular nostalgia comes out.
former KGB officer/aeronautical expert and now NASA scientist named Teddy (false name of course) starts shooting the shit about corruption and greed in Communist Russia.
Teddy- "We are drinking vodka at the KGB station.
Commanding officer opens a letter, "Blat (shit), somebody from turkey is reporting some bullshit. Teddy, here read this"
Teddy- "So I open the letter. Turkey is reporting that two cities along where a new concrete damm (size of Hoover damm) is taking forever to be built, and the two cities next to the damm have had a massive boon in construction."
Commanding officer- "Teddy, you lazy bastard, go figure it out!"
Teddy- "So i pack my bags, we take samples of the damm. We compare geological maps of the area, and the two cities have quadrupled in size w/no evidence of how this is possible considering concrete is in short-supply at this time...We take samples from new houses built"
Teddy-"We find out dam was built very shoddily, and that it was at great risk of being destroyed. The samples from the houses and the dam match. What likely happened is the dam community manager thieved the concrete and sold it to the residents."
Teddy- "I report that dam is in terrible shape. Recommend building second wall for dam to reinforce first shitty built one."
Superiors- "We dont have enough concrete in that country to build the 2nd wall"
Teddy- "Lets hope nothing bad will happen, otherwise 3 million people will have their homes ruined and likely be killed. F-it I still dont know wtf happened in the end there"
This always starts and ends the same way- Drinks and more drinks. Two choices of drink- vodka or cognac.
Backstory aside, when the Russian start drinking the anti-social, xenophobic mask falls away and the jocular nostalgia comes out.
former KGB officer/aeronautical expert and now NASA scientist named Teddy (false name of course) starts shooting the shit about corruption and greed in Communist Russia.
Teddy- "We are drinking vodka at the KGB station.
Commanding officer opens a letter, "Blat (shit), somebody from turkey is reporting some bullshit. Teddy, here read this"
Teddy- "So I open the letter. Turkey is reporting that two cities along where a new concrete damm (size of Hoover damm) is taking forever to be built, and the two cities next to the damm have had a massive boon in construction."
Commanding officer- "Teddy, you lazy bastard, go figure it out!"
Teddy- "So i pack my bags, we take samples of the damm. We compare geological maps of the area, and the two cities have quadrupled in size w/no evidence of how this is possible considering concrete is in short-supply at this time...We take samples from new houses built"
Teddy-"We find out dam was built very shoddily, and that it was at great risk of being destroyed. The samples from the houses and the dam match. What likely happened is the dam community manager thieved the concrete and sold it to the residents."
Teddy- "I report that dam is in terrible shape. Recommend building second wall for dam to reinforce first shitty built one."
Superiors- "We dont have enough concrete in that country to build the 2nd wall"
Teddy- "Lets hope nothing bad will happen, otherwise 3 million people will have their homes ruined and likely be killed. F-it I still dont know wtf happened in the end there"
WIA- For most of men, our time being masters of our own fate, kings in our own castles is short. Even those of us in the game will eventually succumb to ease of servitude rather than deal with the malaise of solitude