October 21, 2021

Message in a Bottle, Moscow Canal Blockage, and Mother of 22


Message in a Bottle, Moscow Canal Blockage, and Mother of 22
In Odder News

In this week's Odder News,  a successful message in a bottle, the coolest cakes in the world, and 21 babies in a year and a half.

  • A Novosibirsk woman makes the most transcendently beautiful cakes that we cannot imagine eating. She got started when her son was five years old and she ordered a cake for his birthday; she was horrified at its ugliness. Pictures of her cakes, here, include a watering can with flowers, a hamburger, a basket of KFC chicken, a skull, Simba, a handbag with a Russian zagran passport coming out of it, a fake bomb with chocolates and strawberries inside, a pot of borscht, a box of ramen noodles, and more. Her unbelievable cakes run about R4,000 ($56).
  • A 24-year-old Russian woman and her older Turkish businessman husband want to have 100 children. And they are already almost one-fourth of the way there with 22 children. He asked her to marry him the same night they met on vacation in Georgia (the country). Since they want lots and lots of kids, all of their biological children were born with the help of a slew of surrogate mothers. In a year and half, the couple had 21 babies. The mother has only been pregnant once – with a daughter she had prior to meeting her husband. An army of nannies keeps diaries so that the parents can keep up on the family news. It's a shame they live in Georgia, where he manages a bunch of hotels, instead of Russia; in Russia, she would be the biggest mother-hero in the whole country.
  • A Moscow riverboat had its own Suez Canal moment recently. The Konstantin was motoring to its winter parking place in the Moscow region when it got stuck and stopped up the canal. The ship, with 80 crew and no passengers, collided with the shore and ran aground. Equipment failure is being blamed, not human error. It is a big deal, but it is hardly Suez Canal big.
  • Some sweet news: After five years, two young sisters from Samara, who sent out a message in a bottle, have connected with the discoverer of the message. Back in 2016, the girls occupied a summer day at the dacha writing a letter on hot pink paper with pictures on fluorescent blue paper. When it rolled up onshore, the paper was white. Thanks to social media, the Samara family that received the bottle was able to connect with the now-teenaged senders – one of whom shares a name, Karolina, with one of the recipients.

You Might Also Like

Art in Utero
  • July 01, 2010

Art in Utero

St. Petersburg’s Russian Museum has inaugurated a program to acquaint pregnant women with the arts, on specially guided tours. Those who participate swear it is making them, and their children, better off.
Birthing Pains
  • January 01, 2015

Birthing Pains

Birth was no easy thing in rural Russia in the nineteenth century, not for mother or child. All manner of bizarre and unsafe practices reigned, from being “corrected,” to getting popped in the oven, to being left alone all day while mom worked in the fields.
A Celebratory Cake
  • May 01, 2020

A Celebratory Cake

А фestive Napoleon Cake that is plenty complex to offer lots of stress baking relief.
A Soviet Bake-Off and Blini
  • June 30, 2021

A Soviet Bake-Off and Blini

Julia Frey's parents, Victor and Victoria, created beautiful feasts in the Soviet times. For Victor, it meant getting cake equipment tailor-made and becoming the best baker in town. For Victoria, it was cooking a Russian and Ukranian storm. Julia cooks, bakes and reminisces about her "great childhood" in London.
Finding Her Russian Roots
  • July 18, 2021

Finding Her Russian Roots

How a conversation led one of 60,000 Russian adoptees in the United States on a journey to her past.
Better Policy for Children? No Kidding.
  • February 23, 2020

Better Policy for Children? No Kidding.

Five Russian oblasts have schooled the rest in good socio-economic policy, according to recent awards from the Expert Institute of Social Research.
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar

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.
At the Circus (bilingual)

At the Circus (bilingual)

This wonderful novella by Alexander Kuprin tells the story of the wrestler Arbuzov and his battle against a renowned American wrestler. Rich in detail and characterization, At the Circus brims with excitement and life. You can smell the sawdust in the big top, see the vivid and colorful characters, sense the tension build as Arbuzov readies to face off against the American.
Tolstoy Bilingual

Tolstoy Bilingual

This compact, yet surprisingly broad look at the life and work of Tolstoy spans from one of his earliest stories to one of his last, looking at works that made him famous and others that made him notorious. 
A Taste of Russia

A Taste of Russia

The definitive modern cookbook on Russian cuisine has been totally updated and redesigned in a 30th Anniversary Edition. Layering superbly researched recipes with informative essays on the dishes' rich historical and cultural context, A Taste of Russia includes over 200 recipes on everything from borshch to blini, from Salmon Coulibiac to Beef Stew with Rum, from Marinated Mushrooms to Walnut-honey Filled Pies. A Taste of Russia shows off the best that Russian cooking has to offer. Full of great quotes from Russian literature about Russian food and designed in a convenient wide format that stays open during use.
Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

In this comprehensive, quixotic and addictive book, Edwin Trommelen explores all facets of the Russian obsession with vodka. Peering chiefly through the lenses of history and literature, Trommelen offers up an appropriately complex, rich and bittersweet portrait, based on great respect for Russian culture.
Survival Russian

Survival Russian

Survival Russian is an intensely practical guide to conversational, colloquial and culture-rich Russian. It uses humor, current events and thematically-driven essays to deepen readers’ understanding of Russian language and culture. This enlarged Second Edition of Survival Russian includes over 90 essays and illuminates over 2000 invaluable Russian phrases and words.
Dostoyevsky Bilingual

Dostoyevsky Bilingual

Bilingual series of short, lesser known, but highly significant works that show the traditional view of Dostoyevsky as a dour, intense, philosophical writer to be unnecessarily one-sided. 
Russian Rules

Russian Rules

From the shores of the White Sea to Moscow and the Northern Caucasus, Russian Rules is a high-speed thriller based on actual events, terrifying possibilities, and some really stupid decisions.
Murder at the Dacha

Murder at the Dacha

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin has a problem. Several, actually. Not the least of them is the fact that a powerful Soviet boss has been murdered, and Matyushkin's surly commander has given him an unreasonably short time frame to close the case.
Fearful Majesty

Fearful Majesty

This acclaimed biography of one of Russia’s most important and tyrannical rulers is not only a rich, readable biography, it is also surprisingly timely, revealing how many of the issues Russia faces today have their roots in Ivan’s reign.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955