"I'm fed up with standing in line for all kinds of junk. I'm fed up with wearing stocking with holes. I'm fed up with getting excited about beef sausages... What's holding you back? The Hermitage, the Neva River, birch trees?" "I couldn't care less about birch trees." "Then what?" "Language...
The guard narrator drops in on Security Officer Bortashevich, intending to ask what kind of trouble is reputedly brewing in one of the prisoner barracks.“Gud ivning,” Bortashevich said, “good thing you showed up. I’m wrestling with a philosophical question -- why do we drink? Let’s suppose, as ...