Aspsusa

Since I don't speak Russian I just figured it was condensed for the subtitles and what he really meant/said was that he didn't get to go to camp or otherwise be very active. Took the "rich family" to be shorthand for privileged, painted the situation in my head as his family taking him with them on trips etc - maybe he got to meet Maya Plisetskaya, hike in Czechoslovakia's High Tatras, do all sorts of cool and unusual stuff, but always wanted to be a regular Young Pioneer like all his classmates.

Thanks! It might be that the pelmeni/vareniki distinction is getting a bit lost in translation here in Finland (&Estonia - the places I mostly see pelmeni/vareniki for sale or on the menu); as I'm pretty sure I've seen pelmeni with kapusta (cabbage) and other vegetarian (savoury) fillings. And in the Ukraine (mostly visited Lviv) I've only encountered vareniki - there's even a semi-fastfood restaurants called "IVF - International Varenniki Fund" (Міжнародний вареничний фонд in Ukrainian - I don't know if MBF is funny too) . "Lazy vareniki" sounds a bit like the slovak/czech "halusky" (they also have "pirohy", but seems less common). And yes, a pirog is a pie/pastry! In Finnish and Swedish we use the same word (Piirakka - Pirog) for both large and small, covered and open. In Finnish the same word is even used for western types pies (quiche lorraine, applepie, lime etc), but in Swedish "pirog" is eastern style and "paj" is western style. I was extremely confused when I first encountered "pierogies" in an online discussion with Americans about food... :-) I don't know what to do to be able to forget this blunder of the writers - it's ridiculous how much it disturbed me.

This! Really hard to watch the rest of the episode after this. Where does pelmeni fit in this? Not being Russian (but living in Finland) I'm used to thinking of any Russian dumplings as pelmeni - is that only for when they are filled with meat/cabbage/mushrooms/other savoury stuff? I would have thought vareniki was the Ukrainian name (never heard of galushki, is that a sweet Ukrainian varenik?). Throughout that scene I kept hoping either of them would have made a snide remark about how the Poles have managed to distort the American vernacular... would have saved it for me.

Just binge watched the latter part of the season. Got to the finale, was a bit miffed, and then came here and registered just to be able to post this: I am getting so bored with Daddy Pope. There were some potentially interesting psychological moments in the last 12 episodes, but keeping Daddy Pope around to use as a lazy Deus ex Machina is getting old. Want to complicate something? Just drag out the nefarious Control. I accept that this is sort of Grey's Anatomy set in politics, so the silly unbelievable stuff doesn't bother me that much - but this Eeevil Control behind every plot is just killing everything potentially interesting about all other characters. You can always drag him into anything from the shadows, and boom! everything makes (no) sense. It's getting to the point that you just wonder why everyone doesn't just pack up and go home, since everyone knows that Daddy Pope will eventually turn his evil eye on any plan and ruin everything. Much more interesting would be if they got rid of him, and we could get something about how the characters develop without this ever present threat hanging over them. Remove him and loads of interesting things open up. This season we've learned that Jake is deeply broken by Daddy Pope - I'd like to throw a jubilant and simultaneously grief stricken unstable Jake together with Mellie in some way (Olivia has no time for complicated emotions not her own and Mellie is twisted enough that I'd like to see what comes out of a drinking bout with a sobbing Jake). Olivia could get some great (and boringly pompous) scenes out of discovering how deep her inner darkness really goes. The gang at OPA would start challenging her over what White Hat really means, and it would actually be meaningful. Cyrus would be top Evil Schemer once again - or would he? We could have a nice on-going power triangle with him and Lizzie and Abby (one or both of the three would be Top Scheming Dog(s) at Congress). Lizzie has never been meant to be likeable, and it would be interesting if we got a constellation where she was for once the more moral one. Abby should become besties with Susan - we could get interesting conversations where Abby would articulate Power and Susan would counter with Policy and Idealism. Just get rid of Daddy Pope already!