Culture & Customs

In Russia, mascots only get better. Imagine a child cracking a smile not JUST for a man bungling in a hot costume, but for a role model who looks like a beloved teatime treat…

Remnants of the Imperial Russian past are all over Alaska – and California, too.

A little levity can be good for the Covid blues, and expert Khadizhat Omarova of Russia’s Rospotrebnadzor has given a variety of advice to accelerate recovery. Why not give your lungs a good stretch and practice your folk song, too?

In this week's Odder News, a horse dung walking trail, a seal with a very proper name, and Mrs. Russia takes the stage.

“Don't believe it, don't click it, don't pay!”

– Sergey Volodkhin, director of the Russian company “Antiphishing,” explaining how online scammers bait their hooks,

The highest mountain in Russia has a bit of a trashy problem. 

Not-Russia took home more Olympic medals than it thought it would, placing third in the overall medal count race.

A Russian woman is suing McDonald's for producing advertising so effective she gave up on Lent.

In this week's Odder News, the biggest pot of borscht you'll ever see, a new birthday gift idea, and piranhas hit Sakhalin.

“There is not a single builder in Paradise.”

– Stanislav Lisichenko, Russian restaurateur, providing an anecdote for Russia’s “Builder’s Day," August 8.

Russia isn't known for being a warm-water country, but during the summer months there are more than enough accessible rivers, lakes, seas, and oceans within and around the country to have a little fun.

Trash-panda no more, this raccoon has developed a hankering for fine wine.