interesting article

There is an article in The International Herald Tribune about the way Russia is closed in January. It's not terribly witty, but it is informative. (For those of you who were skeptical when your agencies told you everything was closed in Russia right now, this should be reassuring.) And the note about no traffic is spot-on. For the last week the roads have been clear.

We went to the new Mega Mall last week (Wow--much more than I expected) and it was packed with people. We did not, however, notice couples fighting after a 90-minute lull. Of course, the St. P folks consider themselves far superior to their Muscovite counterparts--so they're either not fighting or just hiding it better.