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Satire — admittedly a long shot. But sometimes long shots win.
Apologies and gratitude to Charles Dickens
“You say one thing, but mean your mother.”
- Perhaps Linda Freeman (played by Jane Lynch), psychiatrist of Charlie and Alan Harper (Charlie Sheen and Jon Cryer, respectively) on “2 and a Half Men” TV show
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin scratched his head. He looked into the mirror, the frame of which dated back centuries. It was heavy and baroque, wrought by an artisan who knew how to make gold do his bidding.
Russia had its share of craftsmen.
Some made Fabergé eggs, astonishing little pieces of art treasured the world over.
Some made Russian nesting dolls, which, like the steppes of central Asia, seemed to go on forever. Till they didn’t anymore.
Some made frames for mirrors.
Only the French knew rococo, the counterpart of baroque, and they didn’t do so well in Russia when Napoleon tried to engage the Russians in 1812.
The Germans, either, for that matter, when Hitler sent armies east and lost at Stalingrad in 1941.
But, for some reason, the Russians didn’t do so well in Afghanistan. They spent about a decade in the country and, despite their vastly superior firepower, failed to subdue the country.
