March 15, 2018

Cats, Cars, and Non-existent Countries


Cats, Cars, and Non-existent Countries
A Purr-fect Prophet, a Flashing Flashmob, and an Imaginary Island

1.  Picking brackets just got a whole lot easier, at least when it comes to this summer’s World Cup. The Hermitage Museum of St. Petersburg has chosen Achilles, a deaf snow white cat, as its Official Oracle of the World Cup. Achilles, a veteran seer, will choose between two bowls of food, each with the flag of a competing country on it. A paws-itive response from Achilles is sure to guarantee the favored team a win, leading to the question: how is the museum (not to mention FIFA) ensuring that Achilles won’t be bought off?

Photo: The State Hermitage Museum

2. Putin is a middle-of-the road candidate. At least, he was for a night. Over 250 drivers gathered in the city of Khabarovsk to create a portrait of Putin with their cars. They only had enough for half of his face, but still, the result is impressive. The organizers were quick to note that this in-car-nation of Putin had nothing to do with the upcoming election (which, by the way, is Sunday). In other words, don’t take this as their hint for Putin to hit the road.

Photo: Типичный Хабаровск

3. What’s the problem with passports from the Kingdom of the Free Island of Aspi, a small Pacific nation? Well, said small Pacific nation doesn’t exist. That didn’t stop four Russians in St. Petersburg from selling Aspi passports and driver’s licenses to undocumented foreign workers for 15,000 to 100,000 rubles (about $260 to $1,750). They’ve been doing this for three years, even winning a court case when the court could not prove the Kingdom of Aspi didn’t exist. The four were recently arrested, and it’s likely that any hopes of deportation to their “home” country are just aspi-rational thinking.

In Odder News: 
  • A Russian psychic on the run was just arrested (and in possession of “magic salt”). Why didn’t he see this coming?

  • St. Patrick’s Day doesn’t offer enough green for snow-covered Moscow: they need a whole Irish Week.

  • Two men rigged up a fake currency exchange booth and stole one million rubles from an unsuspecting victim: talk about a cents-less crime.

Quote of the Week:

“His character traits include a tendency to choose, to analyze… suggesting that he can foretell anything.” 

—Maria Khaltunen, assistant to the General Director of the State Hermitage, explaining why Achilles the Cat makes a good oracle.

Want more where this comes from? Give your inbox the gift of TWERF, our Thursday newsletter on the quirkiest, obscurest, and Russianest of Russian happenings of the week.

You Might Also Like

Hermitage Cats
  • March 09, 2006

Hermitage Cats

A look at the cats that guard one of the world's great museums.
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

Steppe / Степь

Steppe / Степь

This is the work that made Chekhov, launching his career as a writer and playwright of national and international renown. Retranslated and updated, this new bilingual edition is a super way to improve your Russian.
A Taste of Chekhov

A Taste of Chekhov

This compact volume is an introduction to the works of Chekhov the master storyteller, via nine stories spanning the last twenty years of his life.
Murder at the Dacha

Murder at the Dacha

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin has a problem. Several, actually. Not the least of them is the fact that a powerful Soviet boss has been murdered, and Matyushkin's surly commander has given him an unreasonably short time frame to close the case.
The Latchkey Murders

The Latchkey Murders

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin is back on the case in this prequel to the popular mystery Murder at the Dacha, in which a serial killer is on the loose in Khrushchev’s Moscow...
The Little Humpbacked Horse

The Little Humpbacked Horse

A beloved Russian classic about a resourceful Russian peasant, Vanya, and his miracle-working horse, who together undergo various trials, exploits and adventures at the whim of a laughable tsar, told in rich, narrative poetry.
The Moscow Eccentric

The Moscow Eccentric

Advance reviewers are calling this new translation "a coup" and "a remarkable achievement." This rediscovered gem of a novel by one of Russia's finest writers explores some of the thorniest issues of the early twentieth century.
93 Untranslatable Russian Words

93 Untranslatable Russian Words

Every language has concepts, ideas, words and idioms that are nearly impossible to translate into another language. This book looks at nearly 100 such Russian words and offers paths to their understanding and translation by way of examples from literature and everyday life. Difficult to translate words and concepts are introduced with dictionary definitions, then elucidated with citations from literature, speech and prose, helping the student of Russian comprehend the word/concept in context.
Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

In this comprehensive, quixotic and addictive book, Edwin Trommelen explores all facets of the Russian obsession with vodka. Peering chiefly through the lenses of history and literature, Trommelen offers up an appropriately complex, rich and bittersweet portrait, based on great respect for Russian culture.
Marooned in Moscow

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955