Wednesday, January 31, 2007

A few weeks ago, I was in a trolley on the way downtown. As we approached a stop just outside the Garden Ring, an elderly but very slim and fit-looking man appeared out of nowhere right in front the trolley, causing our driver, a woman, to hit the brakes abruptly and curse loudly. He got in at the stop, and she spewed some of her wrath at him while he was looking for his wallet. "You like extreme, don't you?" she was saying. "You're crossing the street like this, all the while thinking, 'Will she hit me or not?' Right? Is that what you were thinking of?" To which he very calmly replied: "Thinking? What's there to think about? There was nothing but pure calculation." It's still making me smile, the way he said it and then moved past the turnstile inside the trolley. He looked very much like Nikolai Drozdov, one of the sweetest TV people in the world, who's been doing a nature show - "V mire zhivotnykh" - since I was a little kid. I wonder if it was him indeed, and whether the driver woman recognized him and mentioned "extreme" because of that: Drozdov, in 2003, took part in Survivor show ("Posledniy geroi") - I rooted for him then, but he didn't win...

2 comments:

  1. Can't you realize, he was Superman ? and btw where was the stage of the drama? strudel

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  2. I have been to the zoo mentioned in the first link a number of times. They have a rain forest, desert, cave, and swamp all indoors so you can go any time of the year, in any weather.

    If you find yourself back in Iowa ever again, you should make the trip over and check it out.

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