Ask me questions.

[Darius871]

Asher, vodka isn't cognac or champagne. It's simply 60%water, 40% ethanol; it's for getting drunk, not savouring the taste, why spend money on a premium brand?

That's not entirely accurate; for vodka the goal is nothing more than water and ethanol, but any distillation process always leaves trace amounts of fusels (isopropyl, butanol, etc.), so the type of distillation and number of repeat distillations determines the "purity" of the alcohol, which is why you'll see some bottles' labels will advertise quadruple distillation, others double, etc.

In other words, the reason people buy premium brands is because they're closer to reaching that purity goal than lower brands. A taste-test between any $7/L bottle of Taaka and a $35/L bottle of Belvedere should make the difference obvious.

[DanS]

Oh God. You've tried to teach a Russian about Vodka.

[Darius871]

Oh God. You've tried to teach a Russian about Vodka.

*points to avatar and location*

[Imran Siddiqui]

How much borscht do you eat?

[Darius871]

I just drink the blood of Chechen babies. It's virtually indistinguishable.

[Felch]

You should fry up the blood like scrambled eggs. Yum.

[onodera]

I know that in the US there is a single World War I veteran that is still alive. Do you know if there are any living World War I veterans in Russia?

I think the last one died in 1998 or so.

How much borscht do you eat?

Almost none. I don't like the taste of beet in my soup.

[Zkribbler]

I had borscht once. At first it was very tasty but the more of it I at, the more boring it became. I've never had a reaction to a food like that before or after.

[Zkribbler]

No. Do your math again.

Wiat a minute. You posted 10 1/2 hours after I did!

I posted at 1:28 p.m., Pacific time. L.A. is -8 from GMT; Moscow is +3; that's 11 hours difference. So I posted at 12:28 a.m. Moscow time -- which is pretty much the middle of the night.

[Blaupanzer]

Zkrib, and your point is?

[onodera]

Wiat a minute. You posted 10 1/2 hours after I did!

I posted at 1:28 p.m., Pacific time. L.A. is -8 from GMT; Moscow is +3; that's 11 hours difference. So I posted at 12:28 a.m. Moscow time -- which is pretty much the middle of the night.

It's 5 minutes to midnight right now here.

[Alinestra Covelia]

So here's a question. When a Russian man (say, Grigor Ivanov, if that name is at all believable) has children, do they take both his names?

Like say he has a son Mikhail, would he become Mikhail Grigorovich Ivanov?

What about daughters? If he has a daughter Sonia would she be Sonia Grigorova Ivanov?

I get the feeling I'm way off and the names are very wrong.

[Zkribbler]

Zkrib, and your point is?

I asked an innocent question -- what he was doing up in the middle of the night. He said I'd miscalculated. My point was, when he responded, nearly 12 hours had gone by after I'd posted in what for him was the middle of the night.

This is no bid deal, really. Just, when it's the middle of the day for me, it's the middle of the night for onodera. I was wondering why he was up?

But to be honest, I can happily live the rest of my life without knowing the answer to this question.

[onodera]

So here's a question. When a Russian man (say, Grigor Ivanov, if that name is at all believable) has children, do they take both his names?

Like say he has a son Mikhail, would he become Mikhail Grigorovich Ivanov?

What about daughters? If he has a daughter Sonia would she be Sonia Grigorova Ivanov?

I get the feeling I'm way off and the names are very wrong.

You have the right idea. Both children take his family name and use his given name as a patronymic, which depends on the child's gender. Most family names have a masculine and a feminine form, too.

Grigory Ivanov
Mikhail Grigoryevich Ivanov
Sonia Grigoryevna Ivanova

His grandchildren could be
Maria Mikhailovna Ivanova
Sergey Iosifovich Schneerson (Sonia married Iosif Schneerson)

What's the Chinese way, by the way? If the father is Mao Tse Tung, and his son is named, um, Li, what will his full name be? Mao Li Whateverwordisnextintheirfamilypoem?

[Darius871]

So did your government disclose any wack stuff about UFO's that our government wouldn't?