"Some days I hate the whole world. Sometimes, I ask myself, 'what am I doing here?'"
I can identify with that. Except for the "Sometimes."
Part of my family might be from a small town near Kiev.
Maybe you're related to my ex. You and I could have been family, b-dub.
there's still hope if you two can find time to make a trip to san fancisco or massachusettes
in czarist Russia, there were lots of Jews in small towns around Kiev, for example, because Jews weren't allowed into the city unless they were very talented or very rich. True? No idea.
It could well be true. Wikipedia says, without elaborating on the point:
In 1886, an Edict of Expulsion was enforced on Jews of Kiev.
http://tinyurl.com/btbd3
Another site, "Jewish History," says:
1898 October 1, KIEV (Ukraine)
A decree by the Russian Czar (Nicholas II) explicitly barred Jews from living in major Russian cities. The action followed laws issued the previous May (the "May laws", restricting Jewish settlement to the Pale of Settlement. In Kiev, alone, some 7000 Jews were forced to relocate.
http://tinyurl.com/bpny7
did your cabby mention Tom Friedman?
him (under breath, driving a little erratically): well, i'd rather die in a goddamn car crash than of cancer, that's for sure.
Could there be anything you'd less like to hear your cabbie say? The only thing worse would be if he'd been an escaped lunatic/serial killer who had murdered the real cab-driver and was trolling for new victims.
A friend of mine said that Yugoslav busdrivers ca 1980 were all Muslims, and their announcemnts would go "We'll arrive at Zagreb at 3:00 -- God willing!"
They believed in fate, and drove like they did. If you're number is up, it's up.
The cabbie who drove us to the airport in Buenos Aires made the sign of the cross before getting on the freeway. That was a little disconcerting.
"...eg, in czarist Russia, there were lots of Jews in small towns around Kiev, for example, because Jews weren't allowed into the city unless they were very talented or very rich. True?"
The phrase "beyond the Pale" has two major historical sources. Any idea what they are? (Okay, I'm being Socratic; poison me.) (I didn't learn about the other main one, the one not relevant to my grandparents or great-grandparents, until I was no longer a child. Fiddler On The Roof has a very strong basis in truth, as well.)
previously linked to
(Note the spam that snuck in at the end of that thread.)
They believed in fate, and drove like they did. If you're number is up, it's up.
Man this is really bugging me because I remember reading a novel about 10 years ago, one of whose characters was a bus driver in approximately Pakistan, about whom the narrator made an observation quite similar to Emerson's above. Maybe it was by Rushdie? No memory at all of the storyline, title or author. Alas!
Aha! "Haroun and the Sea of Stories" by Salman Rushdie.
"did your cabby mention Tom Friedman?"
Now that's funny.
Kiev and the Jews.
My Aunt Golda, b. 1892 in Russia, went off at age 13 to the big town to learn pharmacy. The rules didn't allow Jews in there except for special business, like dealing timber. So her family wangled a license as a timber merchant for her, and on the trip over the various officials who inspected papers had a good time joking about it. "What a lovely timber merchant rides with you, Nikolay Nikolayevich!"
Maybe the particular place in Russia was the Ukraine and maybe the big town was Kiev. I only heard the story once and that was 15 years back.