The Cook’s Wedding by Anton Chekhov – author of The Shooting Party https://realini.blogspot.com/2022/01/the-shooting-party-by-anton-chekhov-we.html and other magnum opera - 9 out of 10

 

The Cook’s Wedding by Anton Chekhov – author of The Shooting Party https://realini.blogspot.com/2022/01/the-shooting-party-by-anton-chekhov-we.html and other magnum opera

 

9 out of 10

 

You can read this flash story at https://involarium.org/story/the-cooks-wedding/ Anton Chekhov masterpieces are in the public domain, since they have passed the seventy years limit that is generally imposed – albeit who knows what the law is in Russia, and how they enforce it there, wait, we do know about that

 

Anton Chekhov is one of those magnificent Russians that make us pause and say we must not be nationalistic, and stay away from lumping together whole populations, if Putin is committing massacres, it does not mean that everybody in that land is behind this butcher – however, we must say that a majority appears to like him

They feel that Crimea, annexed some years ago, when the West thought the tyrant will stop, if only they let him get away with that invasion, but as has happened with Hitler and others, appeasement does not work, they think you are weak, if you try to settle for peace, and then they push to swallow more, the whole Ukraine now

 

There is some good news, in a terrible landscape, because The US House of Representatives has approved two days ago a package for Ukraine – oops, I see that I need a spoiler alert here, I was supposed to write about the Cook, the marriage, the humor, mention the gun in the first act, and then use it

‘ if a gun is seen in the first act, it should be used by the third act’ this is what Chekhov thought, in this case, the gun to use is the spoiler alert, because I am more preoccupied with the present situation, and less with La Grande Bellezza https://realini.blogspot.com/2017/08/note-on-la-grande-bellezza-aka-great.html

 

Russia will not stop at Ukraine, and the idiots that worship Trump do not see that, indeed, more than one hundred Republican leaders have voted against the Ukraine package, without the Democrats this support would have failed, and it is so outrageous, since no American soldier is fighting there, but it is in the interest of the world

Unless Putin is stopped, he will not only continue, say by pressing against the Baltic states, finding another vulnerable land, for those who have forgotten, he had fought against Georgia, he is interfering in Africa, the latest country to get close to the despot is Niger, these days they want the US out and Russia in…

To say that America is all about generosity, selfless actions is to be not just gullible, but idiotic, only the model they have offered was way better – granted, with Trump, the multitudes that form his cult, that matrix is showing more than cracks, it could be failing soon – than the Soviet, Russian, Chinese proposals and rule

 

We have had the Soviets here, they brought communism, terror, in places that have had no love for these monstrosities – at the bottom, in the standard chapter, there is a link to the Newsweek article in which my contribution to the fall of Ceausescu is mentioned, I took part in the 1989 Revolution that ended an era

However, Putin will bring it back in this place, and if he is allowed, all over the old Eastern, Warsaw Pact, he has said that the fall of the Soviet Union was the greatest calamity of the last century, not the Holocaust, World War II, or maybe WWI, but the disintegration of that empire, which he now tries to put back together

 

He compares himself with Peter the Great, and we have to see that ‘The Great’ czar was still an awful character, if I remember well from this play https://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/petru-by-vlad-zografi-we-must-note-that.html Peter, he has killed his own son, and if we compare the guy with Ivan the Terrible…

Maybe he will get the upper hand, still, those were very cruel individuals, and a reference to The History Boys https://realini.blogspot.com/2016/06/history-boys-by-alan-bennett-really.html by Alan Bennett might be needed, because we find there how men have done heinous things, and especially those dictators

 

“History is a commentary on the various and continuing incapabilities of men…What is history? History is women following behind with the bucket” this is the brilliant line of a female professor in the aforementioned History Boys, a marvelous work altogether, and we still suffer the consequences of this continuous fighting

Now there is also Gaza, where I must confess that I am based in favor of Israel, after all, their enemies are all for destroying the Jewish state, that is in the core of the Hamas ideology, and alas, it looks like most of the Palestinians, and many other Muslims support that terrorist outfit, in places with huge majorities

 

This does not mean that the Israeli army has a license to kill, and that the death of tens of thousands of civilians is not an atrocity, we need to insist though on the fact that it is Hamas who is using these innocent people as shields, and they have started it all on October 7, in 2023, and they continue to be monsters

This has to stop, but how to do it is beyond most leaders, America is trying to press the Israeli government, only there is this Bibi fella, Beniamin Netanyahu – there is a fabulous book The Netanyahus  https://realini.blogspot.com/2022/08/the-netanyahus-account-of-minor-and.html which has won the Pulitzer Prize

 

Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

 There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

 

Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works

 

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’

 

‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’

 

“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”