Putin is preparing for the meeting with Drumpt tomorrow by reading

[kairos12]

"The Idiot."

[Demtexan]

1. The meeting is already over.

Why bother to have it.

[pangaia]

2. OK, gotta chime in here.

Of course THE IDIOT has nothing to do with trump but it IS a great joke..
In fact, I used it once also...

The thing is.. at the EXACT hour that trump was being sworn in, I was in the Mariinsky Theater in St Petersburg, Russia watching Mieczyslaw Weinberg's operatic version of.. THE IDIOT.

true story..and I DID post that right here on the ole DU...

[kairos12]

3. That's a great experience. Agreed, I picked the book only because of the title

and because it's Russian.

[pangaia]

4. me too.. and because, well you know....

Actually I have been to the Mariinsky and the Phiharmonie quite a few times...

just love that city, stunningly beautiful,...... first time there was Jan.1985... 20 below zero F -- was still Leningrad.. heard the Leningrad Philharmonic do Shostakovich 5th and afterwards I snuck several percussionists into my hotel across the street, then the Europskaya..... 7 people.. 7 bottles....

The next night they did the 7th symphony, the one Shostakovich wrote during the Siege of Leningrad.... and that is the same hall in which the piece was performed by the half starved members of the St Petersburg Symphony, the '2nd' orchestra, as the members of the Phil were taken out of the city to safety.....It was August 1942.. while the city was in an artillery battle with the German Army...

The St Petersbugh Phil ( same as the Leningrad Phil...) came to Rochester, NY in Feb this year..and again,, Shostakovich 5.. and again, 32 years later, I went out with the percussion section..different guys but they all knew the old guys..... not as much vodka,. but many toasts, it was a beautiful night...

[kairos12]

7. That sounds wonderful. I am a Veteran with great respect for what the Red Army did during WW2.

I climbed 4 peaks as an American Army officer in the Caucasus Mountains in 1983. it was great experience. I have wanted to visit Stalingrad and shake the hand of one its defenders before they are all gone. I hope to do that someday. It's shame the direction Putin has taken the country.

[nevergiveup]

5. I thought you were going to say

"My Pet Goat"

[stevenleser]

6. One of my favorite books. Trump wishes he was Prince Myshkin

Myshkin who is the character described by the title was not only not an idiot, he was such an impossibly good person he is described as Christ like.

That is definitely not Trump.