Horse Races

The racing season opens after the May 1st holiday and I went with the two other Rostov (Region) Fulbrighters. A total loss of 110 rubles ($4.50), which is little enough that it's almost like winning. Anyway, some pictures:

Cossack Riders Before the Races

You Should See What She Did with the Horse After...

Беги сука первая!

Two for One Bets on #6

Poem about Boy Meets World

I can't believe that

Cory and Topanga wed;

just...unexpected

A Star is Bernstein (Part 2)

This is sort of old news by now but a couple weeks ago I went to Salsk, a little town a few hours south of Rostov. This is where the Soviet government gave many foreign communists land to build communes. So I went there thinking that I would get to the biggest commune, Seyatel. (The name is a play on words; in Russian this means "a planter," you know, a dude who plants, but most of the settlers were Finn- or Russian-Americans from the greater Seattle area. Get it? It turned into the "Stalin Collective Farm", then the "22nd Party Congress Collective Farm" and has now returned to its orginal name as a semi-private company.) When I got there, though, I realized the people who were supposed to meet me had some other ideas, none of which involved going to the farm. They didn't know what it was, actually. They thought I was coming to give a talk at their school. The local press came so at least I got in the newpaper and on tv. In terms of research not very fruitful, but this gift from the children's museum did expand my art collection:

April Fools?

Last year I had a post with an idea for miagkii znak/tverdii znak (soft sign/hard sign) tattoos. Like all ideas I have that seem too good to be true, I let this one simmer for nearly a year. Well, the idea was as solid as it seemed and here's the result:

SMS Me

If anyone wants to send greetings to me via my cell phone (or to other friends in Russia who use MTS) for free, go to this website. You can get my phone from Facebook or email me, I guess, although that seems like a lot of work.

Little Bear

I watched Dmitrii Medvedev in Serbia on TV and I realized for the first time he's really, really small. I looked it up and he's about 158 centimeters which is a little more than 5'2", according to several internet sources. (Obviously, not official but none give him more than 166, which is 5'4".) Putin is only a little taller at 168. Then again, he's at least as tall as Stalin (158). Anyway, a photo:

Foreigners in Russian Basketball

I took a break from script writing to do a little research on Russian basketball. It had always seemed strange to me that so few foreign players played basketball in Russia, especially considering the foreign players I have seen are much better than their Russian counterparts. As it turns out the answer is pretty archaic. The answer is in the by-laws of the Russian Federation of Basketball's "Rules of the Championship of Russia among Men's Clubs" (my translation):


77.2.1: A team's roster may include:

· In Division A [the better league, like the NBA]:
-for clubs/teams taking part in the European Cup, no more than seven (7) players of category E or A, of which no more than 2 players from category A.
-for clubs/teams not taking part in the European Cup, no more than five (5) players of category E or A, of which no more than two players from category A.

· In Division B [the better league, like the NBDL] can be no more than two players of category E or A.

77.2.1: A team's technical roster may include: · In Division A [the better league, like the NBA] can be no more than seven (5) players of category E or A, of which no more than 2 players from category A.
· In Division B [the better league, like the NBDL] can be no more than two players of category E or A.

77.3 For clubs in Division A, at the same time in the course of a game no more than three (3) players of category E or A can be on the court.

In the case of violation in the course of a game, then the game must be immediately stopped and the necessary substitions made.

77.4 A team's roster can include only one player with dual-citizenship, one of which must be Russian and he must have the right to play for the national team of Russia.

So what is a E category player and what is a category A player? The glossary lists E as "an athlete with European citizenship...unable to play for the Russian national team." Category A is "an athlete with non-European [that is, American or Argentinean or Australian, you get the idea, the A stands for something] citizenship...unable to play for the Russian national team." In short, you can have seven foreign players, two of which can be non-European (usually American), five can be on the bench in a game and three can be on the court at the same time.

Some teams have circumvented this. Putin made sure CSKA point guard, John Robert Holden, recently gained Russian citizenship meaning that he counts now as a Russian on the floor and CSKA can field another foreign player. (He was also able to play for the national team in the European championship this fall and, in fact, made the winning basket. His interview was given through a translator on Russian television.)