Word: russian
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...much better shape in Gogol's time. Today, they look as if World War II just ended, but not before a couple of Messerschmitts managed to sneak in a final strafing run earlier in the day. There is no escaping either Russia's roads or its fools, but the Russian art of survival lies in turning them into a life-saver...
...down the same road on which Gogol might well have conceived his line about fools and roads. Our dacha is just a walking distance from the estate of Abramtsevo, owned in Gogol's time by the Aksakov family - literati who turned their home into an informal salon for the Russian intellectual gentry. As a dear friend of the Aksakovs, Gogol was a frequent and honored guest in Abramtsevo, now a museum and a major Russian landmark of Russian cultural history - early in the 20th century, its new owners, the Mamontovs, turned the estate into an artist colony whose output contributed...
...into a defensive mud-wrestling match, Spain resisted its historical urge to attack at any cost, even at the risk of committing the cardinal sin for a Spanish footballer: being boring. In its semifinal against Russia, Spain had sat back for the first half, maybe to see if the Russians had anything new to offer since Spain destroyed them 4-1 in a group game earlier in the tournament. Nope. So five minutes after the interval, Xavi Hernadez breached the Russian line for a goal, and soon after everyone in the once-unlucky yellow shirts poured through. Spain waltzed home...
...What happened to that Russian team? Instead, the semifinal was a cat and mouse game, at least for the first half, with neither team holding much of an advantage or showing much initiative in going forward. Then, five minutes into the second half, Xavi speared a goal for Spain, redirecting Iniesta's cross/shot past Igor Akinfeev. You could sense the panic on the Russian side. The roles were now very clear: Russia was the mouse and Spain was toying with it. Russian coach Guus Hiddink knew that his team's lack of depth and a big-game resume...
...inspection, the liberal and conservative brands of patriotism both have defects. In a country where today's nativists are yesterday's immigrants and where change is practically a national religion, conservative patriotism can seem anachronistic. To be Spanish or Russian or Japanese is to imagine that you share a common ancestry and common traditions that trace back into the mists of time. But in America, where most people hail from somewhere else, that kind of blood-and-soil patriotism makes no sense. There is something vaguely farcical about conservative panic over Mexican flags in Los Angeles when Irish flags have...