Tonight I heard a former US correspondent from the USSR (Dan Shorr)
say that there was a joke in Moscow that went: "They pretend to pay
us and we pretend to work." Another that I heard in Minsk in 1964
went: "We have huge cows here. We milk them in Belarussia, while
they reach across the ocean to feed on grain in Canada." During the
Nasser regime in Egypt, dentists reported at an international
conference that they had developed a new way to extract teeth.
Since no one was allowed to talk under the oppressive regime, the
simply sliced through the cheek to gain access to the offending
tooth. This story supposedly went from one end of Egypt to the other
within a few hours -- and there was no internet! I was told this one
in Assuit in 1980. When I studied Russian in the '60s, I learned a
ditty that contained the expression "Cabbage soup is my fare." A
Russian colleague did not find this funny at all, when I repeated it
to him. He thought I was disparaging his country, while I was just
trying to show how much Russian I had learned -- not much, as that
pretty much used up my vocabulary!
Roger
On 19 Nov 2007, at 6:46 PM, Peeter Vissak wrote:
On Tue, 20 Nov 2007 00:28:20 +0200, Christopher Strevens
<christopher.strevens@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Turnip sandwiches, Bovril on toast with margarine, no eggs or
tomatoes queue
up for beef with ration books.
It used to be so after the WWII and also before the SSSR collapse,
but for a long time the soviet system "burned" it's resources to
produce deceptive abundance.
In the 50ies, they said, there was no whitebread and sugar.
But I remember my childhood in the 60-ies in Tartu. The groceries
were quite full of goods.
Later, in the early years in the university (beginning of 70ies,
still Tartu) I was fond of cooking (mostly everything with cheese)
and counted 17 different sorts of cheese in the most local by-
street shop. But then things turned sour and the 80ies were quite
nasty. NO cheese at all and milk only 25 minutes after the opening
time. I remember - my kids were small then. 1 or 2 sorts of sausage
and meat 1-2 times a week (it was in the periphery already - near
Matsalu State Park and the western coast).
In the 90-ies ration tickets appeared, but the counting was per
head (mouth) and we had 6 children, so we were quite in luxury
(also could trade down our strong alcohol tickets for something
else - we had lots of these :)
And then the Freedom - all the goods and no money . . . :(
Then we used to joke as follows:
The pessimist says it cannot get any worse, the optimist says sure
it can!
But I am neither one, perhaps illusionist - producing evanescent
digital images and reading fairy tales to my granddaughter in the
evening at the bedside (the latter may even have more fixity due to
child mind's immanence). And therefore I won't rant. I think it
even makes me happy!
Peeter
