16 September 2013. The Prayers for Syria Authorised by the Western European ROCOR

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An MP source sent me these:

Again we pray for the suffering Syrian Orthodox people, for the salvation and preservation of their holy places and the lives of our brethren in Syria and the whole Middle East.

Еще молимся о страждущемъ православном народе сирстемъ, о спасений и сохранений святынь его, и жизней братий нашыхъ, во стране сирстей и во всемъ ближнемъ востоце сущихъ.

Send these on to your priest; they’re real deal approved by the ROCOR hierarchy (with a hearty “amen” from the MP), not roll-your-own SVS nonsense. Keep it up until the war is over…

BMD

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16 September 2013. The Golden Hands of Sergei Bobkov

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Five years ago, master craftsman Sergei Bobkov from Krasnoyarsk Krai started to make animal figures from cedar chips. His first bird was a success, so he continued to work with this flexible, textured, and durable material, which also has many shades in its colour. The above carving of a marmot is one of his latest creations. One Sergei Bobkov is worth all the posturing pseudo-intellectuals in the world… and I’m not alone in thinking that way.

BMD

 

16 September 2013. Sergei Yolkin’s World. But What About Indian Summer?!

But What About Indian Summer?!

Sergei Yolkin

2013

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In Russian, “Indian Summer” is бабье лето (babye leto), which, literally, is “grandma’s summer” (or, as we Russian-Americans would say, “baba’s summer”). It’s one of those idiomatic things in language, which you can only translate by using an equivalent idiom, NOT a literal translation.

BMD

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According to Gidrometcentr Rossii (Hydrometeorological Centre of Russia), during the first week of September, central European Russia will have typical autumn weather, “Indian Summer” will come later. Sergei Yolkin gives his view of all that.

6 September 2013

Sergei Yolkin

RIA-Novosti

http://ria.ru/caricature/20130906/961211947.html

16 September 2013. Sergei Yolkin’s World. Some Will Contend in the Marathon… Some Will Have to Contend with It

Some will Contend in the Marathon… Some will have to Contend with It

Sergei Yolkin

2013

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The original Russian title was Кому марафон бежать, а кому объезжать (Komu marafon bezhat, a komu obyezhat), employing a play on words. My problem was to “English” it in such a way as to retain that wordplay. I think that the above fills the bill…

By the way, the cop in the picture belongs to the GIBDD, the Russian traffic cops. It’s a specialised branch of the MVD. Traffic snarls in Moscow are the worst in Europe; it makes rush-hour traffic on the Beltway look anaemic in comparison. That means that the detours in force for the Marathon pissed off tons of drivers. It wasn’t a good day to be a cop…

BMD

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On Sunday, there’ll be traffic restrictions in Moscow because of the first-ever Moscow Marathon. Sergei Yolkin gives us his view of it all.

12 September 2013

Sergei Yolkin

RIA-Novosti

http://ria.ru/caricature/20130912/962768327.html