Word: russian
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...firing my gun for the first time, and it feels good. I'm on the target range of the Saratoga Biathlon club near the south shore of the Sacandaga Lake in upstate New York. I'm on skis, and there is a cleverly designed harness on my Russian-made .22-caliber rifle that allows me to carry it on my back as I wend through the woods between shooting stops. The air is cold and it is difficult to hold the rifle still with my heart pounding, but I actually hit a few targets and finish the course without collapsing...
...Biathlon also tapped into a lurking element of my Scandinavian pride (I am of Swedish heritage). I remember reading about vastly outnumbered ski-borne Finnish troops' earning the nickname "white death" for repeatedly confounding and outmaneuvering the Russian army during the Second World War. I also remember an account from 1943 of a group of Norwegian commandos who successfully skied overland all the way to Sweden (over 250 miles) after blowing up a Nazi heavy water facility that was a key component in Hitler's attempt to manufacture an atomic bomb. More than a few sports have some type...
...alongside the sleeping bags and fishing poles. It was just no big deal. In Jersey City, where I live now, however, guns are associated exclusively with crime, criminals and mayhem, and the laws of the land reflect that attitude. Last spring I was poised to purchase a newly minted Russian biathlon rifle called the Izhmash Biathlon 7-4. I contacted Caso's Gun-a-Rama in Jersey City and they said it was readily available, and everything was in place to make the order when the proprietor asked "Can I have your permit number, please?" I indicated that I didn...
...IZMASH BIATHLON 7-4 with the "N" and the "S" in the Cyrillic backward-letter style (the funny letters add to the no-nonsense Iron Curtain credibility of the thing and it just makes me crazy). I love the little "accuracy stamp" on the barrel from the Russian Bureau of Weights and Measures, certifying that the barrel has met strict tolerances for accuracy and precision. I love the little paper test target it came with where the (Russian) factory technician shot five shots at 20 degrees centigrade and five shots at -20C to confirm the accuracy of the barrel...
...spumes of sputum each time an infected inmate coughs or sneezes. As many as 10% of Russia's million prisoners suffer active TB; in at least 1 case out of 5, the bacillus is a multidrug-resistant strain. Now M. tuberculosis in virulent forms is stalking ordinary citizens in Russian cities and towns, and soon, if it hasn't done so already, it will hitch a ride on an airplane, a bus, a train and escape into the rest of the world...