Russian tea glasses.

"Rick Chappell" wrote in message news:cpcgel$gim$ snipped-for-privacy@news.doit.wisc.edu...

I am not very knowledgable about Arabic culture (Alas!) but I always thought finjans are coffee cups. Israelis also call a large coffee pot (with a bird-like beak and a metal handle a finjan. In Azerbaijzhan peopel drink tea from small glass or chrystal glasses which have a "waist" which make them a little bit like hourglass shape, but these are no finjan and they are not used with any zarfs. And these are just small pieces oif my ignorance for the mountains of your wisdom. And Allah knows best.

Rich, what the hell are you talking about? (BTW, Beria's name was LAvrenti, not LEvrenti). You should read his son's book. Fascinating.

I am very glad to hear about your happy marriage. If Her Highness would read these lines of yours, I am sure you will be duly rewarded, your thinning hair, nervous tics, etc. notwithstanding. Certainly we are not here to accuse every lady of Hebrew descent of being an intolerable, loud, opinionated, jewelry-greedy and loud (or did I mentioned loud before?). However, for reasons unknown to me, among Russian women these treats are not distributed evenly and are much more common among the descendants of former Egyptian slaves. However we also have to say here that on the bed of passion, Jewish women of Russia retain the ancient vigor which is not at all tempered by post-Mosesqian piousness (due to growing up in an atheistic society?) and can make you completely forget about the previously-mentioned shortcomings. No need for home gym if you have one of these ladies share your house. But I (as a Jewish boy) still very much recommend a Slavic Russian lady with the eyes full of deep-gray pool waters, her heart made of kindness and tenderness itself, her smile capable of stopping a raging water buffalo. And yes, you will experience plenty of love and passion, but in a less WWF manner

You spontaneous weeping WILL go away. And may be even you tic. But nothing better than Russian Jewish wife if you want to better yourself, be challenged, educated, learn how to expect a nuclear attack at any moment, develop a feeling for threatening flying objects, fight ten adversaries blind-folded and develop a stomach of pure iron. If you can withstand this training for more than several years, all the Special Forces and Blind Samurai in the world will be not good enough to wipe your ass. In skill of which, BTW, you will also be thoroughly trained.

Sasha.

I see!

True- after all, not all of them are Ashkenazi; there are plenty of Sephardim and Oriental Jews still around.. ;) (Un)fortunately, as a New Yorker and as the former wife of a Jewish guy, I am now Jewish by injection. Unfortunate in the sense that I am definitely opinionated (but that's a trait in my family, anyway). Fortunate in the sense that I'm not loud except after three drinks, I don't adore jewelry, and I've been told that I'm tolerable.

previously-mentioned

HAH! I say- HAH!

If you want a woman with a face like an angel and a nature that is passionate and roiling, African-Americans are the best. We are dependable, loving and kind, and we can usually cook up a storm. The men who love us may gain a few extra pounds, but they'll be well fed and happy. Of course, I wouldn't advise annoying us- objects have been known to move at light speed on occasion. Also, titanium razor blades have been known to be dull next to our tongues- there's no need for circumcision before meeting us, because there's a good chance you'll lose some of your foreskin over time anyway. Some of it will get worn away from all the hard use anyhow, which will also help you wear off the pounds from our cooking.

Majority of us, white guys unfortunately never had a chance to experience a black lady companionship in normal circumstances, because even when it happens, the scene is so overloaded with cultural, racial and behavioral obstacles that minefield walking on Kosovo-Serbian border feels safer. In addition to that, the black community does not look favorably on this and it never tries to hide that. Whites honestly want to look like they are all for it, but the negativity shines through, however the effort to hide it (both from themselves and from the couple). Knowing that, TV networks never show anything that would be seen as a mixed-race romancing, and there is more realty in these "family" shows that in all "reality" shows taken together. What a hypocrisy.

Sashay.

My family surname is Welsh in origin and can literally be translated as "pasty white honky." And yet my uncle's third wife is black - and a wonderful lady, to boot.

Unfortunately, while the Washington, DC, area has been good to them, they're approaching retirement age. And all the locations they've seriously considered for their post-employment life have proven to be less than welcoming to a multi-racial couple.

Truth be told, my uncle's a better man because of my aunt. Period. It's a shame that people get their knickers in a knot over something that is really so inconsequential.

Actually, ER had a mixed-race plotline for quite a bit, between two principal characters. Buffy the Vampire Slayer had Giles matter of factly dating a black woman, and Angel had Fred (a white woman) being shown interest by Gunn (a black guy).

It depends on where you are from. In the South, while mixed race dating can be fraught, it's not the big deal it used to be for most people. My mom loved my husband (she wished he was black, but moms tend to be like that) and likes my new boyfriend, who is Scots-Irish. She also liked quite a few of the white guys I dated better than the black ones because they were more compatible with me.

While I have had black people get really pissed at me on the street and other places for dating white guys, I've seen many more black-white pairings on the streets lately than when I was younger. And on tv, talk shows often have black/white pairings that are as dysfunctional as non-mixed ones.

Never having given two figs what some anomalous black community thinks (and at least one Supreme Court Justice and a former head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff seem to agree with me, to no ill effects), I've never concerned myself with that. My favorite story is about the time my Jewish husband and I went to see my relatives- I was afraid that they would ask him stupid questions about Cha-noo-kuh. Instead, they were nice and ignored us the way the pretty much ignore everybody. In other words, he was accepted. On the other side, he was afraid to tell his mother I was black, even though she was an old lefty. When he finally showed her a picture of me, she was happy- she was afraid I was some Irish Catholic and would try to convert him! In her mind, a black woman was almost as good as being part of the 'tribe', as it were.

You have to understand- people in my family range in color from cream to bitter chocolate. Black-white dating is in my experience (and in the experience of all of my black girlfriends, who have all dated white or non-American men) more fraught for white people than it is for many of us. We know more about 'white culture' than vice versa. I've found that the more assimilated blacks and whites are to each other, the more likely they are to date interracially. In other words, most black people in poverty areas of NY wouldn't, but a certain number of college and prep-school educated ones might. My husband and I, for instance, bot loved jazz and the blues, and he introduced me to early R&B; his parents and my parents both had been involved in the Civil Rights movement, and he and I had both gone to schools for the gifted. I'd also grown up ina Jewish neighborhood, and he'd gone to camp with Paul Robeson, Jr. Culturally we were perfect for each other. As for the BF, he's a former military brat- to him, everyone is equally alien. He was a 'minority' in his home town because he spoke with a Devon accent as a child, and because he didn't think black people were different from anyone else. He's been dating non-white women since the age of 18, and never had a problem with his family.

With many white people, it's all about desire and shame. Shame in that they've already 'mixed' with us (how did we get to be so many colors anyway?) and desire (for instance, Italian-American men whose bloodlines are from Sicily and lower Italy will often make it clear they are interested in me- and I see more and more ads from Italian-American men who actually want to date and marry black women). Black people feel desire and shame also, because of slavery. This may be why most of my friends usually date Europeans or ex-military guys or Jewish guys rather than home-grown American white guys- there tends to be less baggage.

The BF and I have already had 'the talk'. He's planning on moving up here next year because the opportunities are better and because there's still a Klan group outside of his town in PA. Black people can be annoying, but they don't burn down your house for dating non-black guys. The idea of moving to an area where there are no other educated black people, where all the gays have low-paying jobs and are seen as pariahs, and where the John Birch Society is still big doesn't seem like a good idea to me.

Have your aunt and uncle looked at Columbia, Maryland? They have delightful houses there and it's a planned community- it was founded to be ethnically diverse. Miami can be good, although the old people there are still living in the past. And anywhere near NYC you can find places where you don't have to shovel snow. There 's also the US Virgin Islands- money goes further and they can live in peace. My mother is living in Owings Mills, Maryland, but she finds it a bit dull after having lived in NYC.

Nah, sometimes they just beat up the non-black guys. I've seen the results of threatened and actual violence against non-black guys for daring to date a "sister."

Well, the Virgin Islands actually causes more problems. They want to retire near family, not away from it. But the DC area is too pricey. They want to live as well as they are living now, but they won't be able to pull it off on their retirement income.

Unfortunately, all the towns they find geographically, educationally, and architecturally appealing are just south of the Mason-Dixon line.

Don't forget about the Secretary General of the U.N.

I agree on all points. You seem like a reasonable person with whom one can talk about these matters without filtering each and every word. Next time you are in Reno, gimme a buzz. We will love to have you for dinner and tea at our casa.

Cheers,

Sasha.

True. Which is bad enough. I always used to diffuse the sitch when I was with my husband (no, it wasn't a divorce. I'm widowed). I pity the guy who might try to beat up the boyfriend though, since he's professionally trained in hand-to-hand combat and has told me that he has no qualms about breaking someone's head. I've had th good fortune of never having lived in neighborhoods where anyone would ever do such a thing, and my family has never behaved that way. And I'm sorry you ever had to see such a thing.

The husband and I made a point of not wandering through Harlem and such, as it would have been bad for our mutual health. But is that a bit different than Klansmen showingup at the door? Intensity-wise, yes. Intent-wise, it's the same.

See, that's the problem. DC is ridiculous. My mom is managing, thank goodness, but she also keeps a place in Florida, which she likes. She's not far from Lauderhill.

Understood. They'd have to worry about all kinds of lovely ignorant people. Although the BF is technically above the Mason-Dixon, withing driving distance of Harrisburg, and it's not pleasant there either. Nor would it be pleasant in Howard Beach, here in the city, or Bed-Stuy. Oddly enough, certain parts of Central Harlem would be fine- lots of multiracial artists and professionals, and housing is still reasonable. Unfortunately, the world is still changing. The BF and I were talking about possible futures- where would we retire? Certain sections of Upstate NY are fine, but one has to be careful there also. But the corridor up the Hudson sems to be ok, and things will have changed by then.

Yup. In certain circles if people don't like it, they've learned to keep their thoughts to themselves.

And sometimes, they don't. I know of people who have sent letters of protest to the American Swedish Institute because Mrs. Annan was going to be speaking there.

The same people sent letters of protest because a well known Swedish couple adopted an African child.

Twits abound. And, unfortunately, they have an unnerving ability to get their grubby mitts on the microphone.

Better a microphone than a rock, although I'd rather they not touch either one.

Well, I certainly wouldn't want them touching my microphone...

... on the off chance that stupidity is contagious. ;)

But enough about twits. Let's talk about tea!

The US is by no means perfect- after all, there are parts of the city I wouldn't traverse with my boyfriend on my arm, for fear of something bad happening. However, there is a great deal more tolerence in this country than there used to be. There's now a much higher probability that someone will go to jail for committing a hate crime- when I was a child, I was simply taught that I had to be very careful, and that the police would probably not help me.

And feel free to stop by NYC sometime and have tea here- I have a wonderful view, and the tea here is good.