:: Osculation Cessation ::

One of the less reputable Russian dailies has reported that Russian politians are being told not to go for the full-on snog when greeting each other. This long-observed manifestation of comradely affection symbolises for many the murky Soviet past, but the reason given for its prohibition is to save time. The famous mural of Brezhnev and Honecker kissing (here pictured in 2003) now forms a part of the preserved Berlin Wall East Side Gallery. I'm of the opinion that the defacement of this image over the past 10 years is an act of grave political vandalism. Its message, whilst rooted in the socio-political landscape of the late 20th century, must be preserved. The caption "Gospodi! Pomogi mne vyzhit' sredi etoi smertnoi lyubvi." (Mein Gott hilf mir, diese tödliche Liebe zu überleben!) translates as "My God! Help me to survive this deadly love." Neither the the German nor the English translation satisfactorily conveys the nuance of the original: the adjective smertny means not only "deadly" but also "mortal" (as opposed to eternal) and colloquially as an intensifier meaning "extreme". Amusingly enough this has a near-cognate in the (British) English dialectal usage - "dead good"...

...Oh dear, I'd better stop wittering about linguistics/semantics (despite the fact that it's supposed to be good for my career and love life and get back to the Brezhnev-Honecker image. That mural was painted by Dmitry Vrubel, whose portrait of Mother Russia is particularly arresting. The original photograph from which the mural was painted was also used in a Hungarian satirical poster. And full-on kissing in Hungary is no laughing matter. Perhaps I should start by informing the casual reader that Csókolom!, a formal, old-fashioned Hungarian greeting translates as "I kiss you!" When I stayed with schoolfriend's family in Budapest in the early 90s, I wasn't aware of the level of gusto required to kiss each newly met guest. I suspect that with the influx of Western European values and customs (and diets with considerably less garlic), this is one tradition which is sadly on the wane.

If you want a good fright for Halloween (other than these lovely costumes linked from Taxloss), have a quick read about Iranian & Chinese missile capability. Or simply follow my flatmate's lead and buy some horrid flowery wellies.