I love this article from the NY Times that announces that French President Sarkozy says that French people should stop thinking so much and get to work! Finance Minister Christine Lagarde even quoted de Tocqueville!

The French also say that jogging is so declasse’. The intellectual walks he does not jog.

I guess I am more French in that way I hate jogging.

Some questions: The French went through an Anglophile period in the past. Are they going through another Anglophile period with the Sarkozy regime? (or Pro American)

This is kind of like “Patty Cake” for Russian children. My Uzbek mother-in-law taught it to my children. I search everywhere for the words tiring of repeating “Ladushki, Ladushki” and finally found them. Now I can teach my baby the entire song.

LADUShKI, LADUShKI
GDE BYLI? -U BABUShKI.
ChTO ELI? - KAShKU.
ChTO PILI? -BRAZhKU.
KAShKA SLADEN’KAYa,
BABUShKA DOBREN’KAYa.

There is another about geese but I can’t find it! If anyone knows it please let me know.

I also got this book about Russian Fairy Tales from the library to read to the children. I had to censor about half of the stories. They aren’t meant for the PC crowd let’s just say that. In Russian fairy tales, the mentally slow are beaten and sent to the woods to die. Wives who do not obey are thrown into pits or are beaten with sticks. One wife disagreed with her husband and was thrown into a lake where the husband held his wife’s head down until she agreed with him. People are baked alive and eaten. People of all classes are regularly beaten with sticks. The fairy tales aren’t much different from the fairy tales I grew up with, except in America we get the happy censored version of fairy tales. I am sure Russian children today get the same watered down version of the tales as the book I read was from an older collection. They are interesting for adults to read however, and I highly recommend them. I also recommend reading older versions of the fairy tales from Western Europe (and in America). Let’s just say there is no woodsman at the end of Little Red Riding Hood, the younger pigs are eaten, and the ogre is definately the bad guy.

Verka Serduchka, the drag queen from Ukriane, is running for the Ukrainian parliament!!

Here she is at Eurovision 2007 where she won 2nd place. He/she is now my favorite!! I want him/her to come to America!!

Here are more videos of the singer.

This is a great blog from a Ukrainian and in it he mentions Verka Serduchka.

Sorry. I know that I disappointed the millions who read my blog everyday, but I was on vacation in Chicago. Will write on Russian in Chicago soon.