America's largest long-distance communications company, Worldcom, announced the largest bankruptcy in US history (the company's holdings total $100 billion). Before the world stock exchanges had time to recover from the scandal with the bankruptcy of the gas company Enron, a new misfortune happened on Sunday. This time the Worldcom corporation collapsed. Just as in other cases, the collapse was caused by an audit that revealed additions to the corporation's income of $3.8 billion.

The famous Belgian “cake thrower” Noel Gaudin announced that he would hit our Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov with a fresh cake. Mikhail Mikhailovich was guilty of being the first Russian politician to agree to participate in the visiting session of the Davos Forum, which was held in Moscow on October 29-30. This greatly offended Gaudin, who is a staunch anti-globalist.

Competitions for libraries can be counted on one hand. Unfortunately, neither at the local nor at the federal level are the best libraries of the year determined, nor are they awarded honorary titles. Wait a minute though! There is a library competition called “Interlocutor”. Our library project is already 7 years old. Its main goal is to promote Russian cultural institutions and popularize “Interlocutor” among library readers.

For almost two weeks now, Sergei Krutikov (known as Mikhei) has been in serious condition in the Central Clinical Hospital of Civil Aviation. He was found in a recording studio, where he was recording a new album, lying unconscious on the floor. According to Mikhei’s mother-in-law Liliya Filchenko, his condition is still unstable. The diagnosis made by doctors was ischemic stroke of the cerebellum.

It’s good that from July 1 of this year, budding entrepreneurs will not need to jostle in queues: Prime Minister Kasyanov signed a decree, after which all of them will only have to visit the tax inspector. That's all. Previously, as you know, in order to legitimize your company, you had to go through dozens of offices. To facilitate registration, it was necessary to pay bribes, the amount of which reached billions of dollars throughout the country.

Just in time for Bill Gates' 46th birthday, Microsoft introduced a new version of the Windows XP operating system. The presentation of the Russian version took place simultaneously on October 25 in Moscow and New York. “This is a completely new system,” Microsoft marketing manager Dmitry Khalin told Interlocutor. — Microsoft considered a great many options for the new interface: from the most radical to the conservative.

In mid-October, two investigators (employees of Radio Maximum) conducted an interrogation of Russian pop stars. They were suspected of a terrible crime: that they contributed their songs to the new, just released album “Maxidrom-10”. The anniversary disc was released by the Maximum radio station and the Real Records company. The “interrogation” took place in the Moscow club “B2”.

November 2 marks the 50th anniversary of the General Director of the First Moscow Watch Factory OJSC Sergei Ksenofontov. This doesn't say much right away. But you say: “Flight” watch - and everything is clear. After all, there are probably few people in the country who would not wear these watches. Under Sergei Ksenofontov, the plant went through a lot, was even on the verge of bankruptcy, but survived. And now Polet's flight is normal.

5 years ago, November 5, 1996, Russian President Boris Yeltsin, on the eve of coronary artery bypass surgery, signed a decree “On assigning the temporary duties of President of the Russian Federation to Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin.” According to this decree, Chernomyrdin became acting for the duration of the operation. President of the Russian Federation.

The Vena Brewery (St. Petersburg) began producing Nevskoe Original beer in a new bottle shape with a capacity of 0.5 liters. Light beer of golden amber color with a unique delicate aroma and deep mature taste, shaded by a slight hop bitterness... Nevskoye Original is now easily recognizable by its stylish packaging design: the half-liter bottle preferred by 70% of beer connoisseurs has acquired an original modern shape.

Maleism is, of course, nature. But not only that: it turns out that most of the men walking are the grown-up sons of actively working single mothers. What do we call womanizers there? Scoundrels, liars and traitors? Who are they really, besides the fact that they are children of inattentive mothers? Each new one is different from the previous one What do Mick Jagger, Prince Albert of Monaco and Chinese communist Xu Kiyao have in common?

It’s good that the richest people in the country did not hesitate to tell how many millions and billions of dollars they are worth. “We promised six months ago to reveal the names of our shareholders,” Platon Lebedev, director of the MENATEP group, told Interlocutor. — And on June 20, the MENATEP group, which controls 61 percent of the shares of YUKOS, declassified this list.

The cheerful episode that happened to the residents of a two-story wooden house in the village of Kominternovsky, Kirov Region, could have ended more than sadly for at least two of them. Construction worker Anatoly Fominykh almost died while visiting his toilet. The toilet beneath him suddenly fell through the floor and landed on the floor below. “Thank God that at least I didn’t kill myself,” Anatoly Fominykh himself told Interlocutor about his impressions.

50-year-old ex-CIA agent Edward Lee Howard died at a dacha near Moscow. After being accused of spying for the USSR, Howard managed to escape from his capitalist colleagues in 1985 and has since lived in Russia in relative safety. It is not known whether the agent had tender feelings for our region or simply coveted a long spy dollar, but he offered his services to Soviet intelligence officers in Vienna. There, after some time, his American colleagues tracked him down.

Samovars for Viktyuk On October 28, Roman Viktyuk turned 65 years old. His nephew Boris congratulates him: - Dear uncle! I wish you only a creative mood. I remember last year, theater colleagues and 4th-year GITIS students staged a skit party on October 28, dedicating it to “beloved Viktyuk.” Then you especially liked Sergei Makovetsky’s monologue and Dmitry Bozin’s performance. The only thing that confuses you about name days is gifts.