A.
Sklyarenko: "'But no sapphic vorschmacks,' mumbled Van
into his pillow. (2.8)" From Ilf and Petrov's "The Twelve Chairs"
(Chapter Eight Goluboy vorishka*) [ ]:Застенчивый Александр Яковлевич тут же, без промедления, пригласил
пожарного инспектора отобедать чем бог послал. В этот
день бог послал Александру Яковлевичу на обед бутылку зубровки, домашние грибки,
форшмак из селёдки, украинский борщ с мясом первого сорта,
курицу с рисом и компот из сушеных яблок.Without further
hesitation the bashful Alchen invited the fire inspector to
take pot luck and lunch with him.
Pot luck that day happened to
be a bottle of Zubrovka vodka, home-pickled mushrooms, vorschmack
of minced herring, Ukrainian beet soup containing first-grade meat,
chicken and rice, and stewed apples. (ibid.)
Jansy Mello:
Vorschmack indicates an apèritif, sure. But it wasn't
food that which Van had in mind, it was lesbian
foreplaying....
Carolyn Kunin: Alexey's
swooney-balooney reminds me that the origins of the word balloon are not that
well know. An 18th century ballet dancer by the name of Balon could float in the
air seemingly defying gravity. His name entered the language, first as a way to
describe that extraordinary ability of some dancers, in the 20th century
Nijinsky is the preeminent example, to appear almost weightless, and then to
describe that flying machine, first flown in Paris in 1787, causing the British
to go into paroxysms of fear. Not sure they have ever gotten over
it.
Jansy Mello: Fascinating postings. You
made me remember ballet class with desriptive terms such as pas de chat, pas de
bourréé, jetée and sometimes a yell that sounded like "balloné". I
decided to check it in a glossary of ballet expressions. I found the
"ballon" and a correction about the link between the dancer Balon and the ballon
(balloon)*. Your story is richer in wonders (it was Samuel Butler who
decided the chicken-egg conundrum by stating that "the hen is only an egg's way
to make another egg." (or was it the other way round?)
Mary Efremov: "sharivariii was what the riders of the step wore....tartars, kalmyks,
ukraininas kazakhs etc..."
Jansy Mello:
Brian Boyd's Annotations to Ada writes: 11.28-29: servant girls in sharovars (somebody had goofed-the word
"samovars": sharovary are wide trousers; a samovar of
course is the urn Russians use to boil water for tea, perhaps meant to be
introduced for local color--it is a cliché of Russianness--despite its
irrelevance to this scene, only for it to have been garbled into sharovary.[
] Sharovary may also evoke the French "charivari"
(discordant music), a word used in the opera chapter of Madame
Bovary,
and even another famous garbling, "Charbovari" (Charles Bovary's mumbled version
of his name, taken up as a mocking chorus by his classmates in the opening
chapter of Flaubert's novel).,.
btw: great explanation about
Pierre Legrand. Reminiscent of PF's Beauchamp and Campbell
... .
.........................................
Ballon means "to bounce," where the dancer can
show the lightness of the movement. This is a quality, not the elevation or
height, of the jump. Even in small, quick jumps (petite allégro), dancers
strive to exhibit ballon. A
dancer exhibiting ballon would spring off the floor and appear
to pause mid-air before landing.[ ]
Ballon is the appearance of being lightweight
and light-footed while jumping.
It describes the quality, not the height or speed, of a jump. It is a desirable
aesthetic in ballet and other dance genres, making it seem
as though a dancer effortlessly becomes airborne, floats in the air, and lands
softly. The name is widely thought to be derived from the French word ballon (meaning "balloon"), though it has been
dubiously claimed that the name was inspired by French ballet danseur Claude
Balon,
who was known for performing exceptionally light leaps.[1]