Our blue-screen workers have never dreamed of such joys: they can’t count on more than a company car. Although the fact that there is a lot of money circulating on our television has not been a secret for a long time. But when the conversation directly concerns numbers, Svanidze, Yakubovich, Posner twist their fingers at their temples and get off with the phrase: “They pay me a penny by world standards, but that’s enough for me.” What pennies?

Friends call him an agent of Satan, Woland. Those around him are afraid of his phenomenal abilities. 39-year-old Willie Melnikov knows 95 languages. And this is not the limit: there are still more than three thousand left. Due to lack of knowledge of English, they did not want to transfer to the 9th grade - Where did you get such a strange name - Willie? “Actually, I’m Wilfried, Willy for short,” he says.

The Russian hinterland sometimes presents such surprises that you are amazed. For example, residents of the village of Tatarsky Saiman, in the Ulyanovsk region, cannot live without cars, which they design and assemble themselves. Here it is considered good manners if the wooing groom drives up to the bride’s house in this same car. We drove until the fuel ran out Despite the fact that the Bishkek-Moscow train arrived at Klyuchiki station at 3 pm, buses no longer ran to the region.

It happened in Omsk. The call came to the ambulance substation at 4 a.m. - the man was paralyzed. The road was empty at such an early hour, and the driver, in order to get there faster, decided to jump through the red traffic light. But just beyond the intersection there was a traffic police picket. The inspector waved his staff and ordered them to stop. It turned out that the flasher wire on the long-written-off car had come loose due to the cold.

Autumn is the “hottest” season for venereologists. Because citizens arriving from resorts take home not only souvenirs. Shells for children, photographs for memory, wine for work, herbariums for parents and... something for wives, husbands, girlfriends and boyfriends. Venereologists then treat this “something”. From vacation - with a “bouquet of Moldova”? In the same way, Christopher Columbus once returned from distant lands - with gifts. I went for gold and spices, but brought back syphilis.

The original musical and educational program “Night Shift” is preparing to leave the broadcast network of the ORT TV channel. This information appeared on one of the Internet sites. The reason for the expected departure of the Dibrovo program is its critically low rating. The end does not justify the means. “The Night Shift program has excellent ratings, and there is no reason to close it,” the ORT public relations directorate assured us.

Pavel Borodin has been languishing in a Brooklyn prison for five weeks, and his defenders have not stopped fighting the American Themis for a minute. How much does Pal Palych’s lawyers cost? The defenders themselves categorically refuse to answer this intimate question. However, it is known that Borodin’s lawyers are still paid according to the highest global tariff rates. The stakes are high, but unlikely to exceed $500,000.

Once upon a time, the old Prince Bolkonsky said to Pierre Bezukhov, confident in the imminent triumph of universal peace: “Pour out the blood, pour in the water, then there will be no war.” There will be war. If not today, then tomorrow, if not here, then nearby. The twenty-first century cannot do without it. This was again recalled by the situation around Israel, the bombing of Iraq, the mass enrollment of Iraqi volunteers “to fight the stronghold of Zionism”...

Rimma Kazakova belongs to that small and happy group of poets whose surname has never been an empty phrase for the people. And if in the old days the Polytechnic Museum was crowded for her performances, now that the fashion for such things has passed, we hear her poems from the lips of new stars - Masha Rasputina, Irina Allegrova, Philip Kirkorov and his wife Alla Pugacheva.

Vladimir Putin travels abroad often: last week he returned to the Kremlin from Ukraine, where he in turn came straight from Austria. But when the television news says “today the President of Russia arrived on an official visit to...”, quite similar pictures usually appear on the screen - an airplane ramp, a motorcade, handshakes of leaders and other protocol things.

What is happening today in Ukraine has never been called anything. Can I suggest another option? A global political experiment is taking place in Ukraine. In order to answer the question: is it possible, with the help of the most cynical PR technologies, to overthrow the most stupid government? In Russia, this has not happened several times in a row over the past five years.

Bloody Jungle Shadows There are several “lost worlds” in the world where surviving prehistoric monsters live A research expedition will start in the capital of Thailand, Bangkok, at the beginning of this year. She will head to the northern regions of the country. If the enterprise of scientists and the Thai government is crowned with success, humanity will experience a sensation.

Opera and ballet lover Alberto Vilar has been courting the Mariinsky Theater for a long time. And now a 60-year-old connoisseur, whose fortune is estimated at 5 billion dollars, decided to throw 15 million “greenbacks” to the main theater of St. Petersburg. All of them will be spent on organizing the theater's annual tours in Washington starting in 2002. In other words, the Yankees purchased our classic entertainment for a reasonable price for 10 years.

When Jordan decided to return to basketball last year, the first thing Jordan did was check on his injured knee. And after the first training sessions I decided: everything is OK. Michael got into shape very quickly, but on June 20 bad luck struck again: his old “friend,” defenseman Ron Artist, unexpectedly hooked Jordan. The result was two broken ribs and a two-month absence from training.