Postcard from Bishkek

I remember that when I was learning Russian, I had to ask my teacher for help … in answer to a question that she had posed, I was trying to say that “the weather is warmer today than yesterday” when I realized that although I knew the basic vocabulary, (weather = pagoda, warm=tyeplo, today=sevodnya and […]

Why is it that all of the good slogans have already been taken? In the 1954 Billy Wilder film, Audrey Hepburn plays the part of the chauffeur’s daughter … her father’s millionaire employer was played by Humphrey Bogart and his younger wayward brother by William Holden. The plot is a little convoluted but it’s supposed […]

I have to admit that, although I understand why they were developed and people use them, I hate spam filters. Please, don’t misunderstand me – I hate Spam!, but I probably hate spam filters even more!  They are like computers and technology in general … they offer so much and when they work they appear […]

Earlier this week I came across an interesting post on the kloop internet portal …  although the site has a blog in English, this particular post was in Russian – which makes sense because it was really aimed at a local audience.  Even so, I thought it was particularly interesting and well worth sharing with a wider […]

As I mentioned in a previous postcard the Oxford English Dictionary declared selfie as the Word of the Year for 2013, citing its rapid increase in usage as the reason for their choice.  Well, the selection of the guardians of the English language has a competitor … in the choice of the American Dialect Society: because. Now, […]

Of the six basic questions in life, (Kipling’s “six honest serving men”: Who?, Where?, When?, What?, How? and Why?), five are basically descriptive and the last one – Why? – is analytical, giving an explanatory justification.  Also, it can often involve speculation.  It’s a very powerful question – perhaps the most powerful of them all. There’s […]

The other day I had the occasion to write a letter of complaint … the following is a slightly redacted version of it.  I think that it speaks for itself … so I won’t spend time “setting the scene” except to say that those people who know me well, will vouch for the fact that […]

There were a couple of very sad items in the news last week … and one of them led me to a shock discovery and a “moral dilemma”. It concerned the death of a fifteen year old boy.  Tragically sad in itself, the article was even more poignant because it went on to report that […]

From my regular scanning of the news sites on line, I came across an item reporting the results of a survey conducted in Britain … with the headlilne declaring that “Cold calls and spam emails top the list of ‘bugbears of modern life’“. Although the list of the top 50 irritants did contain some interesting […]

When it comes to promoting Kyrgyzstan, whether as a tourist destination or a suitable place to invest and do business, it is generally agreed that we need some sort of brand or image.  However, it is not so easy to agree on one which embodies all aspects of the country and what it has to […]