December 16, 2021

Yappy, Gigolos, and Timofei Chalamov


Yappy, Gigolos, and Timofei Chalamov
In Odder News

In this week's Odder News, a surprising temperature range, TikTok has competition, and overnighting in a movie theater. 

  • Thank god for the Russian government: starting December 29, Russian women will be safe from "migrants and gigolos." A new law requires most foreigners staying in Russia longer than 90 days to be fingerprinted, photographed, and examined for infectious diseases by state doctors. (The article says the law applies to visa-free guest workers, complaining about Uzbek men in particular, but it actually applies to all foreigners.) Did you know that during Soviet times, foreign visitors to Moscow were highly educated, talented, and socially responsible? But these days, any old creep can "brazenly deceive the native people" of Russia!
  • Move over TikTok, Russia is getting into the short video social media business! The new app is called Yappy (Of course it is). Gazprom Media created Yappy, and you can download it from the Apple App Store and Google Play. TikTok has become one of the top five social media apps in Russia; here's hoping Yappy will join that list before long.
  • Russia is not the frozen wasteland many foreigners think: it has almost reached the biggest simultaneous temperature differential in one country in history. The differential last week was 85.6 degrees Celsius (186.08 degrees Fahrenheit). In Chechnya, it was 24.5 C (76.1 F), while in Sakha, it was -61.1 C (-77.98 F). The typical daytime temperature range in Russia is 10-15 C (50-59 F). Climate change is being blamed for such a range, though we think Russia's absolute hugeness is primarily to blame. Oddly enough, the United States still holds the record with a range of 88 C (190.4 F) in 1954.
  • An unexpected snowstorm left over 100 people trapped in a Norilsk movie theater overnight. Visibility was almost zero with winds at 27 meters per second. Of course, it is not the worst place to be stuck: all-night movies and all-night popcorn. Well, it is Russia: all-night tea and wafers, not popcorn.
  • Meet Timofei Chalamov, Russia's Timothée Chalamet lookalike. The lookalike – actually Artyom Privalov – recorded a peach pastry commercial for Tsekh 85 bakery chain that is taking the internet by storm. The new pastry is even called the Chalamet. Check out the lookalike, or the pastry, here.

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Some of Our Books

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Bears in the Caviar is a hilarious and insightful memoir by a diplomat who was “present at the creation” of US-Soviet relations. Charles Thayer headed off to Russia in 1933, calculating that if he could just learn Russian and be on the spot when the US and USSR established relations, he could make himself indispensable and start a career in the foreign service. Remarkably, he pulled it of.
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The Life Stories collection is a nice introduction to contemporary Russian fiction: many of the 19 authors featured here have won major Russian literary prizes and/or become bestsellers. These are life-affirming stories of love, family, hope, rebirth, mystery and imagination, masterfully translated by some of the best Russian-English translators working today. The selections reassert the power of Russian literature to affect readers of all cultures in profound and lasting ways. Best of all, 100% of the profits from the sale of this book are going to benefit Russian hospice—not-for-profit care for fellow human beings who are nearing the end of their own life stories.

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Driving Down Russia's Spine
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July 01, 2013

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Steppe
July 15, 2022

Steppe

This is the work that made Chekhov, launching his career as a writer and playwright of national and international renown. Retranslated and updated, this new bilingual edition is a super way to improve your Russian.

White Magic
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White Magic

The thirteen tales in this volume – all written by Russian émigrés, writers who fled their native country in the early twentieth century – contain a fair dose of magic and mysticism, of terror and the supernatural. There are Petersburg revenants, grief-stricken avengers, Lithuanian vampires, flying skeletons, murders and duels, and even a ghostly Edgar Allen Poe.

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