It was an unlaughing German who said, more than a century ago, that when history repeats itself, it returns the first time as tragedy; the second time as farce. The Russian film director Nikita Mikhalkov recently released his state-financed film about the Russian army between the defeat by the British and French in the Crimean […]

by John Helmer - Saturday, July 3rd, 1999
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According to a fresh Moscow anecdote, President Boris Yeltsin comes out of the banya feeling energetic. Over the protests of his driver, he insists on taking the wheel of his limousine. But he drives too fast, and unable to stop in time for a red light, he crashes into another limousine. That one is occupied […]

by John Helmer - Friday, June 11th, 1999
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It’s just as well Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov will appear for his meetings in Washington next week clean-shaven. A recent history of the human face came to the conclusion that, at least in the earliest systems of human government, men with beards did well, because it was thought they could negotiate better, conceal their real […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, March 18th, 1999
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What kind of bird is russa’s prime minister, Yevgeny Primakov, or is he a fox? Aesop once tried to explain the difference with the fable of a jackdaw, who was sitting on the branch of a fig-tree. Hungry though he was, the bird could see the fruit was still green. So he decided to wait. […]

by John Helmer - Friday, February 5th, 1999
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Heart surgeons are like athletes. Their best work requires tremendous endurance for feats of physical precision, coordination, and ingenuity. This is why the best surgeons are past their prime by the age of 50. That’s when the strength and control that flows from brain to fingertips begins to ebb. At more than 80 years of […]

by John Helmer - Friday, January 22nd, 1999
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