Issue #24/49, October 10 - 22, 1998  

-So Chernomerdin is gone for good!

-Down here no one is ever gone for good.

-It's too bad they are not talking about the anti racial law any more.

-He wasn't talking about it before.

-No, but I feel a kind of kinship with him.

-How so?

-His name means black face.

-That doesn't make him your brother.

-I was hoping he had some kind of African lineage.

-Like a distant relation of Pushkin?

-The only thing African about Pushkin was his activities with the ladies of Saint Petersburg.

-And the fact that his great grand father was supposed to have been from Ethiopia, or Cameron.

-Which Cameron?

-One clown tried to prove that.

-That's not important. The issue now is that they used the PM and dollar stuff to Push the bill behind.

-And just about every other thing that could be pushed around.

-And once again the son of man is unsafe in the streets of Moscow.

-Damn! I was trying to forget that.

-I can afford to. With the Dollar and Ruble playing Tom and Jerry in town.

-The whole thing is messing with my senses.

-Especially when the vacum cleaners went through the shops overnight.

-Well, thank God the goods are back.

-Which was why I went to church last Sunday!

-And asked for what?

-Nothing for myself. I prayed for all the pensioners and miners who have been drumming their frustration away with their helmets.

-You know what's funny?

-What is funny?

-If you give this people their little pay they'll work without complain and and won't even ask for a raise.

-Oh yeah? What about the bankers demostrating the other day,somewhere in the Center?

-What about them?

-They where dressed in designer suits and drumming their own frustration away, not with old miners helmet, but with expensive mobile phones.

-What does that mean?

-I don't know. It must be a Russian thing.

-Do You think the guys up there really care?

-With goods Playing Mohammed Ali in the shops, Now you see me now you don't? I don't think so.

-Talking about Mohammed Ali. I heard the Ex Prime Minister is vacationing in Australia with boxing kangaroos.

-What are they, sparring partners?

-Probably telling them about the jumping inflation in Russia.

-There is no such thing as jumping inflation.

-Of course not, but it would be an injustice to call this inflation galloping!

-If you say so, but I still think everything will get better soon.

-Why not? Pigs are doing the hundred meters sprint in Japan.

-Don't be such a pessimist.

-I'm not. I just see the bright future in a darker shade.

-Yeah, yeah.

-Anyway,between you and me, they have a cosy position awaiting his return.

-Why not? He was a guest star for four months, he deserves his wages.

-The question is, Do you think it's morally right to have him back?

-Like I said before. Around here no one is ever gone for good.

-Yeah you're right. Did you see the guy riding reindeers in Nenetsky?

-The other PM? He wanted to come back as a deputat.

-He didn't look like Santa to me.

-Some one must have told him that, because he changed his mind and decided to go for the Presidency.

-You think he's got a chance?

-I don't know, but he borrowed a phrase from Jesus of Nazareth.

-Which one?

-"I'll be back!"

-Desperate to serve his people.

-"Let me into your sitting room," said the spider to the fly.

-Intriguing! Boxing Kanga-roos and phoney Santas. What could it mean?

-It must be a PM thing!