Ukraine. Sadness? Fury? Depression? A short time out?

[Spiky Bugger]

I simultaneously cannot watch/cannot stop watching the news. And the photos. And the failed attempts to save children.

But then, I want a time out and feel guilty when taking one. Our compromise is a combo.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelinskyy of Ukraine was an actor/comedian before, on a fluke, he became President. His tv series was called Servant of the People. Amazingly, it was about a History teacher who, on a fluke, became President of Ukraine.

It is now available on Netflix. It’s funny. And a tad too smart…because of if references to European and World History…for most Americans. But we can’t stop watching and gleaning what we can.

My Russian is WAAAAY beyond “rusty.” I grasp when they say things like: good morning, hello, thank you, good, sergeant, and tank. Those were words the Army thought we Russian students should know. I think I know pencil and window, too. But I haven’t heard those yet. You have to pay attention and read subtitles.

It gives us chance to chuckle AND love Zelenskyy, even now.

 

[Spiky Bugger]

BTW…I know that Russian and Ukrainian are different languages and that Russians and Ukrainians do not want us confused that they are “the other one.” But they overlap, a LOT.

It’s like listening to Danes and Germans and Swedes arguing that their languages are not AT ALL alike. Except that “bread” equals “Brot” in German, and “brød” in Danish, and, ”bröd” in Swedish. (Or “brood” if you’re Dutch.) So there’s that.

Anyway, Russian and Ukranian use almost identical Cyrillic-based alphabets and have MANY words in common. And most Ukrainians understand/speak Russian, but most Russians do not speak Ukrainian.

And another factoid about words, but NOT about language: Zelenskyy’s tv series was named Servant of the People, which looks like Слуга народу in Ukrainian (and, of course in the VERY DIFFERENT Russian looks like Слуга народа and like Sluha Narodu in our alphabet, and is now the name of a political party, the party Zelenskyy belongs to, in Ukraine. Life imitating art, for sure.

 

[Larra]

When this war started, I couldn't stop watching. I watched and watched until I just couldn't watch any more. Now I'm watching in bits and pieces, which is all I can handle, and keeping up on the Internet as well. It's just overwhelming.
And if Time doesn't name President Zelensky the person of the year, I'm gonna be really pissed. I don't care if it's only March, no one else is going to come close.

 

[JackieOnLine]

I haven't been watching. I'm struggling just trying to live and I just can't.

 

[southernlady]

It helped that in the weeks after all this started, we were moving and too exhausted to bother. And we had 4 days before we had the TV even back in service. Also, we stick to OTA TV, which limits our exposure to the all day long news channels.

 

[k9ophile]

I traveled to Russia in 1972 on an exchange program between Kent State and Moscow University. This whole thing is breaking my heart. The people were so warm and friendly. The architecture was stunning. I even attended a student performance at the Bolshi Theater. I am encouraged to see that some Russians are daring to protest. They'll probably never see the light of day if they're not executed. I'm no expert on world affairs. I just know no one wants to see their children as cannon fodder.

My Russian is not as extensive as Spiky's. I remember chicken, tea, goodbye, and thank you.

 

[Spiky Bugger]

It helped that in the weeks after all this started, we were moving and too exhausted to bother. And we had 4 days before we had the TV even back in service. Also, we stick to OTA TV, which limits our exposure to the all day long news channels.

It doesn’t here.

We now have (mostly )right-wing news stations on the “left over empty-since-digital-tv” between the regular channels stations. Like channel 5-3 or 8-2.

 

[southernlady]

It doesn’t here.

We now have (mostly )right-wing news stations on the “left over empty-since-digital-tv” between the regular channels stations. Like channel 5-3 or 8-2.

We typically watch MeTV which doesn’t do news.