Elsa's Russian gift
after i returned to America, i wrote a story about elsa mikkonen for an academic journal in Finland. i sent her the clipping. a few months later, one of the Russians came to Minnesota. she had a gift for me.
it was a little ceramic statue of the main character from the Russian novel, "And Quiet Flows the Don."
it was from Elsa.
when i found out what it did, i realized it is most definitely the coolest thing i own. take a look at this video:
isn't that great? the smoke rings? i hardly ever use it because he only has a finite number of those little burnable white sticks and once i run out, he'll never smoke again. but i figured it was worth it for the video.
tomorrow i'll tell you the story of how i got back out of the soviet union. it's almost as good as how i got in--maybe better.
15 comments:
I think it was a good idea to fire one up for the video, at least now you have a record of how it worked.
Wow - I feel like I turned the TV on in the middle of a soap opera that I hadn't seen in a few weeks. I'm a little lost. :) It's good to be back though and I'm sure I'll catch up. Someday. Dog stories are SO much easier to follow.
This is so cool!
How very interesting. Looking forward to reading about your exit from Russia.
Crystal xx
brilliant! Looking forward to next instalment!
you've been memed!
What a cute litte guy and best of all the story of how you got it. I love reading this story and don't want it to end.
That little guy is really adorable. I certainly didn't find anything like that to buy when I was there.
I have never seen anything like that. He is very cool!
Cool! I've heard of those but I've never seen one before.
So impractical, and yet so cool.
I wonder if those little incense cones would work?
Can't wait for the rest of the story.
You aren't some kind of an international fugitive, are you? That could make for some great stories.
thanks! i think it's cool, too. i have no idea how it works--it has a solid bottom, and the only hole is where the tiny little cigarette goes. but something must draw air, and something blows those rings.
one person told me they thought it looked like Stalin, but i assure you, it's not stalin. it's a Cossak, the lead character in a famous russian novel.
I was just going to ask where does the smoke come from. Apart from being great I bet this will be worth a lot of money soon, as what with smoking bans going global he will probably be the only person still smoking....
thanks for your thoughts on this, I felt a bit struck by this article. Thanks again!
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