Kazan — summer 2014

This has been the coolest summer I've ever had in Kazan. I'm grateful. We are expecting 113 back home today.

I walked into the office this morning and Galina Valentinovna was fanning herself with a hand fan. I was surprised. "Are you hot?" I asked. "No," she replied, "I'm just acting like a hippy." I had no idea that Russian had a verb that meant "to act like a hippy," which is хипповать, by the way.

She also taught me the phrase «Бутерброд всегда падает маслом вниз», which means "Bread always falls butter-side down." Years agone I read a book on Murphy's Law that had that as a corollary.

for a newly-completed apartment building

I have been using a computer at the institute on occasion to read news, and occasionally I have tried to read an article to which their proxy server has denied me access on the basis that the website is pornographic. Here is a picture of the latest objection:

This time the banned site was rollingstone.com; I had wanted to read an article on Weird Al's album hitting number one. What other sites have been denied as pornographic?

• The Los Angeles Times webite
• The Times of India
• The Advocate (for an article on border protests)

Seriously? The LA Times? And The Times of India? I understand the logic behind banning The Advocate, but those others? Very strange.

29 July 2014: Added to the pornography list...

• wired.com
• boingboing.net

31 July 2014: Added to the pornography list...

• collegehumor.com

But of course I'm in Russia, and buckwheat with mushrooms is a beloved Russian side dish. So I bought mushrooms. (Yuck, fungus, gross.) And I cooked it up. Turned out great. My recipe is here.