From: "alexander koryagin"    
      
   F2EP   
   Hi, Ardith Hinton! How are you?   
   on Saturday, 01 of March, I read your message to Alexander Koryagin   
   about "Humour"   
      
    AH> Awhile ago you were asking what  an  English(wo)man...  defined  by  my   
    AH> OXFORD CANADIAN DICTIONARY  as  a  person  who  is  English  by  birth,   
    AH> descent,  or naturalization...  would perceive as  funny.  Here  are  a   
    AH> couple of incidents re the 2014  Olympic  Games  which  I  found  quite   
    AH> amusing:   
      
    AH> 1) According to news reports, Mr. Putin visited the Canadian embassy as   
    AH> the games were about to begin & wished us luck... except in hockey.   
      
    AH> For  those  who  aren't  hockey  fans  his  comment  may  require  some   
    AH> explanation. I note with interest, though, that he knew we'd take it in   
    AH> good spirit.... ;-)   
      
      Actually Putin forgot Russian traditions. Probably it will be interesting   
   for you,  that if a Russian person wishes somebody luck,  that somebody must   
   send the wisher to Devil. ;-) It is a tradition.  So, vise versa, when Putin   
   had wished bad luck for Canadian hockey  players  he  actually  wished  them   
   luck, and shame on him - Russia got poor chances. ;=)   
      
    AH> 2) At  the  closing  ceremonies,  a  bunch  of  people  re-enacted  the   
    AH> situation at the opening ceremonies in which  the  fifth  Olypmic  ring   
    AH> failed to work as planned.  (In 2010 one of the pieces  of  Vancouver's   
    AH> Olympic torch didn't work initially either.) That's the nature of  show   
    AH> business...  something usually goes wrong on opening night!  But I  saw   
    AH> Russians doing what many experienced actors & musicians would have done   
    AH> right here at home: i.e.  they found a way to fit it into the plot.  By   
    AH> so doing they demonstrated clearly to me that they are able to laugh at   
    AH> themselves.  I like that...  and as we say in English, a picture may be   
    AH> worth a thousand words. :-))   
      
      As for me,  I hate when people act as perfect as  robots.  That's  why  I   
   don't like ballet, gymnastics etc.  They all smile with professional, false,   
   hypocritical smiles. They train themselves around-the-clock, and of course a   
   human cannot love things he repeated thousands of times. The only way out is   
   to put on a smiling mask.   
      
   [...Knowledge is the rock you can step upon, faith is the water you must go   
   along]   
   Bye Ardith!   
   Alexander (yAlexKo[]yandex.ru) + 2:5020/2140.91   
   fido7.english-tutor 2014    
      
      
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