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Were schoolteachers really paid substantially less than $45 per month in 1990s Ukraine?
Shortly after Tys graduated from university and started teaching in Carbide (by Andriy Lyubka), he'd periodically borrow money from his friend Icharus:
By that time, Icarus had become a businessman (that's the title his proud neighbors and family…
EJoshuaS - Stand with Ukraine
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14
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What is "Galacian tobacco" and what is its significance?
Chapter 7 of Sweet Darusya refers to "Galacian tobacco" being smuggled between Poland and Ukraine. What exactly was this, and what was the significance of it being specifically that kind of tobacco?
I do recall from Zinky Boys that Soviet citizens…
EJoshuaS - Stand with Ukraine
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14
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1 answer
Would "most unkindest" have been considered poor grammar in Shakespeare's time?
One of the famous lines from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, describing Brutus's stab to Caesar, is:
This was the most unkindest cut of all
Nowadays, it would be considered incorrect grammar to combine "most" with an already-superlative adjective: it…
Rand al'Thor
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14
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3 answers
Meaning of "none so poor to do him reverence" in Shakespeare's "Julius Cæsar"
I am wondering about the meaning of the word "poor" in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, Act III, Scene 2:
Antony But yesterday the word of Caesar might
Have stood against the world; now lies he there.
And none so poor to do him reverence.
(Line 1665…
Smerdjakov
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14
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Fairy tale story in two parts: "as I first heard it" and "when I wanted to know more"
I read this book some years ago, probably around 2010, though it was definitely older than that. It had a fairly short and simple title, of the kind one might expect to find on a fairy tale: "The Lost World" or "The Princess's Journey" or something…
Rand al'Thor
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2 answers
Where did Saruman know Frodo from?
Near the end of The Return of the King, the last Volume of the Lord of the Rings, the hobbits return to the Shire. There, they meet Saruman and his follower Grima (Wormtongue). When Saruman attempted to slay Frodo, failing because of the Mithril…
anonymous2
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14
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1 answer
How does the old norse kenning 'nausta blakks hlé-mána gífrs drífu gim-slöngvir' break down into 'warrior'
The 11th century icelandic skald Þórðr Sjáreksson wrote this kenning, quoted from wikipedia:
nausta blakks hlé-mána gífrs drífu gim-slöngvir "fire-brandisher of blizzard of ogress of protection-moon of steed of boat-shed" — from the…
AncientSwordRage
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14
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What is "the line children draw to represent a bird in flight"?
The expression on her face, then, had been the one he'd seen,
hours later, on her sleeping face in a port side coffin, her upper lip like
the line children draw to represent a bird in flight.
I'm reading Neuromancer and don't understand what…
Albert Albert
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14
votes
1 answer
What is the role of Jane Eyre in The Cider House Rules?
In The Cider House Rules, Jane Eyre and several works by Charles Dickens (such as David Copperfield and The Great Expectations) are repeatedly mentioned and cited.
One of the roles of David Copperfield is the citation “Whether I shall turn out to…
wythagoras
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Political allegory in Lukyanenko's Watch series?
The Watch series by Sergei Lukyanenko describes the often bloodless struggle between the Night Watch and the Day Watch. It's a sort of cold war in which each side is only permitted to attack members of the other side if they break the Treaty in some…
Rand al'Thor
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14
votes
2 answers
Where are the white folks in The Expanse?
I'm three books (and three short stories) into Corey's "The Expanse" series, and I've noticed an interesting trend.
When Corey describes the ethnicity and inherited culture of individual characters to depict a multicultural, multi-ethnic future, he…
BESW
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14
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Why did Tolkien publish as J.R.R. Tolkien?
Quite a number of authors of English literature around the early 20th century published with initialed pen names (EM Forster, JRR Tolkien, TS Eliot, ...) whereas others did not (Thomas Hardy, Rudyard Kipling, Joseph Conrad, ...), and I was curious…
Kimball
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votes
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Is Simon epileptic?
From the moment Simon is introduced in Lord of the Flies, we learn that he faints a lot. He has his own place which he retreats to when he feels he is about to faint or maybe have a fit, and when he sees the pig's head he hallucinates and has a…
Beastly Gerbil
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14
votes
3 answers
Was Tess raped?
The first part of Thomas Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbervilles ends on an extremely dark and sinister note: Alec d'Urberville successfully gets Tess on her own in the middle of nowhere, and they end up having sex. This scene is deliberately not…
Rand al'Thor
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14
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A detective story about money printing
I probably read this 3-5 years ago. It is a story about a man that wants to reveal a money printing factory, which he does because his brother died (I guess) while trying to reveal that money printing.
I do not remember the details, but what I do…
Elrond
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