In this case, Holmes, I’ll ask you to explain me the meaning of the words box cutters, because it would be rather ridiculous to think, that supposed terrorists could really be armed with such peculiar subjects.
Bravo, my friend, you haven’t missed even this little detail! Such perfect analytical makings could make you splendid detective!
This moment there was knocking at the door, and Mrs. Hudson, our kindest hostess, appeared on the threshold. Hardly has she entered the room, she addressed a question to me:
Aren’t you ashamed, Mister Watson, you have totally worn out our dear Holmes! Dinner will be ready soon, and you’re still sitting here, in stuff rooms, and talk, and talk without end.
I assume my fault, Mrs. Hudson, but the theme was so absorbing, that I completely forgot about time. We discussed the terrorist attack on New York on the September 11, 2001.
Nonsense! When you say was it? Do you remember what date is it today? Imagine, some speculators knocked down two steel bookcases and sacrificed other speculators, in order to make some profit of it: is it worth worrying so much and missing your morning promenade?
Holmes and I, we looked at each other in amazement, and then burst out laughing… this old woman was right in the main point, if not to take into account some details.
By the way, Watson, what date is today?
October 14, if I’m not mistaken, Holmes. We started investigating “picnics” on the 22nd of September, and today is the 22nd day of our new investigation…
And 33rd day since September 11, – added Holmes, – but according to the day of the month, we act in the rhythms of favourable matrix of Pushkin’s “Queen of Spades”, – and after that his loud laughter sounded. – Well, Watson, pick up these two files into one, add, what you consider necessary and send the floppy disk to Russia, for Pchelovod, address is here. May be, we will be useful too for formation of new conception in the world.
And now let’s go and have a walk. Life is beautiful and it surprisingly continues!..
Such “mixing” can occur in things…
[1] This © Copyright should not be deleted when publishing the book, since it conflicts with its meaning. If needed another © Copyright of the publisher can be added. THIS REMARK IS TO BE DELETED WHEN PUBLISHING.
[2] Read a bit forward
[3] The suffix ‘-ен’ refers to English ‘-ing’ meaning an action named with the previous verb. So “речь” (verb is “рекать” though today it is used not without different prefixes) – turns into “речение” and in English can be found as “speaking” (but not in its modern usual meaning) like an action when one speaks.
[4] Though not only “to know” (in “ведать + Accusative case”, direct object), but as well “to be in charge (of); manage” (in “ведать + Instrumental (Ablative) case”, indirect object)
[5] “Translators – are false horses of enlightenment” as the Great Russian poet Pushkin said.
[6] Central Committee of Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU)
[7] It can be translated as “Beekeeper”.
[8] All these five words are of the same root in Russian; they could be represented approximately with such English analogues as rightness, right, right-judging, righteousness; the last one, Orthodoxy, is of Greek origin and could be translated as ‘Right-glorifying’, as well as Russian word for the same subject.
[9] John 8: “31 Jesus then said to those Jews who believed in him, “If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free”.
The New American Bible (http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/index.htm) Later, the same Bible is used. If one needs he can read the Bible he likes more. And then think over why and what for does the Sacred Book exist in many variations that sometimes are quite different.
[10] Look “Gulliver’s Travels”.
[11] Afghans aren’t Arabians, but the mixture of Pushtuns, Tajiks, Uzbeks and other tribes.
[12] Godzilla is a monster, giant dinosaur tall as a “little” skyscraper, from the film of the same name.
[13] “The phantom of communism” is a very precise expression, because this “phantom” has been hiding the real communism from people’s minds for more than hundred years.
[14] New Testament, Luke, 11:23.
[15] Nabokov might be recommended by a fellow chess-player to Watson, for Nabokov himself was a great chess-fancier and was well-known as a good chess problem composer.
[16] The numerical value of ace in cards is 11, though it seems to be 1 according to the number of the drawn suit symbols.
[17] “Revolutionist” in Russian can be written as “revolutioner”. And “revolutioneram” is dative case of the plural and means “to revolutionists”. Here the word is divided into two parts.
[18] It may be necessary to note, that for “map” and “card” there’s only one word in Russian language – карта.
[19] “Spades” in French are called «Piques» – sounds as «picks» – and thus in Russian it is spelled with the same letters as the beginning of the word “picnic”.
[20] 11.09. 2001 was Tuesday.
[21] Gambit /'gæmbıt/ n. 1 chess opening in which a player sacrifices a piece or pawn to secure an advantage. 2 opening move in a discussion etc. 3 trick or device. [Italian gambetto tripping up]. (The Oxford Dictionary of Current English. Rev. Sec. Edition. Edited by Della Thompson. – Oxford Univ. Press, 1996 – 1080 pp.)
[22] Maybe it is connected with Russian archaic word for “an ancestor” – “Chur” or “Tschur” and is used in diminutive form, which here shows the caller’s disdain to them.
[23] In Russian this means “the daughter of Nile”. And that was the name of main character of Gorky’s novel “Mother”.
[24] In Russian: “without kith or kin”
[25] In Russian: “Crucian-son”
[26] This word can be translated from Russian as “suppression”, or “calming down”.
[27] In Russian the first part of this word means “the Hebrew”, and the second – is a swearword.
[28] It’s a synonym of “mad house”, or “psychiatric clinic” in Russian.
[29] Extracts from this Directive are quoted below as cited in N.N. Yakovlev’s book “The CIA against the USSR” (M.Politizdat, 1985, p.p. 38-40, as selected):
*This historian should not be mistakenly identified with A.N. Yakovlev, former Politburo member, who has the same name*
«Our main goals with respect to Russia are essentially twofold:
To minimize Moscow's might;
To introduce fundamental changes in the theory and practices of the foreign policy pursued by the government in power in Russia
... We are not committed to any time limit to achieve our goals in peaceful time.
...We have grounds decisively not to feel any guilty when striving for ruling out of concepts incompatible with international peace and stability and for their replacement with concepts of tolerance and international cooperation. It is not our concern to think about internal consequences that such concepts, if adopted, would entail in other country; equally, we should not think that we bear any responsibility for these events (we use italics when citing: the United States are guilty since they refused to take care and responsibility)...If the Soviet leaders assume that the increasing significance of more enlightened concepts in international relations is incompatible with the preservation of their power in Russia it will be their concern, not our. Our concern is to work and ensure that internal events occur there...As government we are not responsible for internal conditions in Russia...