[stuartr]

Yet another reason to visit beautiful Vladivostok.
Vladivostok News
I liked the part where the couple complained that their victim was "tough".

 

[setmenu]

Stuartr

I have a very vivid imagination and when I read of these things...
The mindset involved to do such things real disacociation,
It's horrible and kinda funny in a really black sort of way.[so exteme to ones day to day experiences]
I have seen documentrys on the subject and the psychology of
this sort of thing can be facinating.

Setmenu

 

[Old Pa]

Sounds pretty much like Minot, ND after a week long cold snap, except discovery usually follows annoucement of a potluck where the hosts provide the entree.

In the alternative, the moral may well be that after you and your companion(s) have had that much to drink there is no such thing as a casual request for oral sex (something the literalists on these forums would do well to note).

 

[ai0tron]

And I thought the title "Man Eating Alcoholics" was some kind of metaphor.

 

[Wes]

And I thought that the Moscow area was pretty tough!

Well, the most striking death I remember from the news here was not really intended. Central heating pipes underground had leaked near-boiling water underground creating a sort of scalding mud slurry capped by a little still-frozen soil. More than one person broke through while walking their dog and the like. They died of burns sustained before anyone could fish them out.

 

[KR...]

Quote:

And I thought the title "Man Eating Alcoholics" was some kind of metaphor.

for what

 

[ai0tron]

KR: for what?

Thats why i clicked it.

 

[stuartr]

Wes: I heard about that...that and people falling through the manholes. Stuff is pretty rough here though. The first week I got here, there were four assassinations. After that they averaged about one contract killing a week until the end of the year, and then the day after I left for Christmas, there were two car bombings on the same day. This is a city of 700,000, compared to Moscow's 9 million. It is a rough town to be a "businessman" in. Otherwise it is pretty safe I think. I think in terms of random street crime, it is not that bad. Another nasty way to go happened in Kharbarovosk, a couple hundred miles north of here. An old radiator exploded, killing the kid who was in the room with steam and shrapnel. They told me it would just be a matter of time before I saw a dead body while living in Russia, and they were right. I was visiting my girlfriend in the hospital after she had some knee surgery, and I had to go in the emergency entrance. Sure enough, two orderlies were cheerily chatting around this guy with his brains spilled out all over the gurney. It was not a pretty sight. Yes, but don't get me wrong. I like it here. It is just a little bit more wild than rural Vermont...
ai0tron: I too thought it was being figurative at first.

 

[coolvij]

Checkov never mentioned THAT kind of thing in his books.....neither did Sholzenitsyn (sp?).......hmm...

(switches from Russian to German on his HS course selection sheet).

 

[Xander]

 

[eric343]

Aieeeyickyaaack! That's *siick*. I'm glad there were no pictures...

 

[stuartr]

coolvij. You should not base your decisions on my ramblings. The stuff Solzhenitsyn was talking about was worse than just insane people cannabalizing...As for Chekhov, well you are probably right. But if you remember, Germany was not always the cup of tea it is right now...and in the twentieth century they were very much in the race with Russia in terms of who killed more people. I think Stalin "won", but I don't think that is the right word. But in any case, just because it is not pretty does not always mean we shouldn't study it. But I am sure you realize that, and I am just going on my little rant for no reason.
Stu

 

[Dusty Chalk]

My only question is, who was more "pickled", the victim, or the cannibals?

Sorry, that was pretty tasteless.

 

[Wes]

stuartr,

I'd have to agree with all your observations. Big as it is, Russia has a lot of uniformity too.

I've seen my share of corpses in public places. There is not much emphasis on tucking them out of sight immediately--and maybe that is not such an unhealthy thing. Hard to say. Then, there are the police shows on TV with their daily footage of corpses from shootings, auto accidents, and apartment fires.

I've been careless about the manhole covers, treading firmly on them whenever convenient. Maybe I should be more prudent. My wife's parents taught her always to avoid them, but then they taught her never to kiss or shake hands in a doorway.

However, I do periodically look overhead to see how many icycles are dangling above me.

On the other hand, I feel much more secure walking around here at night than I ever did in the US. The most aggressive character you are likely to meet in a pedestrian underpass is a beggar or a busker.

Moreover, after Enron, the US doesn't have such a high horse to preach from even about business ethics.

coolvij,

Take it from those who spend time in Russia: it's not like the US, but it has its attractions.

 

[Wes]

It's early to rely on all the details of this story, but it seems to belong with the others in this thread.

A fellow in Moscow was mugged and dumped, probably for dead, in a dumpster on the street. He came to inside a moving truck with blades heading toward him, the blades that normally render trash in a garbage truck more compactable. Ah, but he had a cell phone and called the authorities.

They asked him how he got there, where he was (of course, he couldn't tell them at what address but offered the starting point as a clue to which truck the police should pull over) and offered some helpful suggestions:

"Have you tried alerting the driver?"

"If I could do that, I wouldn't be calling, would I?" the caller answered, rather logically.

"But you can do that! Beat on the walls. We know your hands are free because you were able to dial this number."

In all, some 40 minutes of conversation with the emergency operator took place before the blades got this guy and chopped him to death.