The Littlest Refusenik (off-topic)

I thought I'd take this moment to tell a story not about Theo, but about history. It's 1977, and a couple in Moscow by the names of Boris and Natalya are blessed with a daughter, whom they name Jessica. Boris and Natalya are "refuseniks," Soviet citizens refused an exit visa to leave the Soviet Union. And to compound this, Jessica is in poor health due to malabsorption syndrome. Jessica needs medical care only available in the West, where Jessica's babushka now lives. Babushka can send formula back to Moscow for her granddaughter with tourists, but this cannot do it all. The family requests permission to reunite in the west, with Babushka calling her Senator and Boris and Natalya filing for an exit visa on health grounds.

Boris recalls the evening he got a call from friends. It was one in the morning, and he was asked to come over, right away. He remembered seeing from the window of his friend's apartment several cars pull up: cars which were favored by the KGB. A group of "official looking" men entered the apartment with an American, who asked the KGB officers to leave the room. "And they left!" Boris recalls, with surprise even today, over 30 years later.

The American was Ted Kennedy. He had made a deal with Leonid Breznev allowing Boris, Natalya and Jessica to emigrate. Kennedy met them at Logan Airport and, as Boris recalls, was "the first person we saw" in America. He kept in touch with the family as they settled, and Jessica grew older and stronger. She now works for the City of New York, helping to find housing for those with special needs.

While I am well aware of Ted Kennedy's weaknesses, it is his strengths I admire. I wish him fair seas and following winds.

Diminutives

For those of you who have not experienced Russian culture up close, I'd like to share some very endearing rituals that I just love. First and foremost there's the use of diminutives for names or nicknames. For example adding a diminutive to a proper name, such as Theodore becoming "Theodorchik" is common, and not just for people. Many Russians refer to their mobile phones as "telefonchik." nBut my favorite example is how Julia and her mom refer to Theo by using a string of increasingly shorter diminutives of the Russian word for little, маленький (pronounced ma-lin-key).