Re: Babooshka blah blah

[Doug Alan <nessus@athena.mit.edu>]

Well, I asked my Russian coworker about the word "babushka" and she
said that in Russian, the word means "grandmother" and nothing more.
She says that it never is used to mean either "scarf worn on the head"
or as a term of endearment.  She also said that she has heard it often
used both these ways by Americans.  (In fact, if you look in an
English dictionary, the definition of "babushka" is "a usually
triangularly folded kerchief for the head".)

In any case, there is still the possibility that Kate used the name
"Babooshka" because she once heard it used as a term of endearment by
an ignorant English-speaker and it stuck in her head.

|>oug

P.S. A Health teacher in high school told me that "retcyn" is a
trademark for glucose (i.e. sugar).  Whether or not he is right, I
don't know, but it would not surprise me in the least.