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Re: DN: "Stang" and "Beaver" reminiscences
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Dmitri Nabokov wrote:
"A similar game, I am told, is played in present-day Russia using sightings of cats or automobiles of an agreed-upon color."
During the Soviet times - kids were spotting Ambulances and then you have to catch the its red cross into your hand and make a fist and then you need to open your fist (with the red cross inside, presumably) and let it go to a person who is wearing glasses (pointing to his or hers glasses).
Best, Vladimir M.
________________________________
From: Nabokv-L <nabokv-l@UTK.EDU>
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Sent: Wed, January 20, 2010 10:20:17 AM
Subject: [NABOKV-L] DN: "Stang" and "Beaver" reminiscences
Subject: stangs and beavers
From: Dmitri Nabokov
Date: Wed, 20 Jan 2010 18:13:15 +0100
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum <NABOKV-L@listserv.ucsb.edu>
Dear Friends,
Amid all the admirable research and discourse dedicated to these words and related matters, I noted the mention of "Dmitri's memory" as a possible source of assistance. I can offer the following tidbits. I have a very clear, even tactile recollection of the upright metal posts for passengers to hang onto, usually located near the doors and on the open platforms of European urban public conveyances.The Russian term for them that, as a child, I learned from my father wasштанга [shtanga].That, of course, does not preclude the plethora of other usages and of variants in other languages (such as stang in English, stangue in French, stanga and the aggressive verb stangare in Italian, or the German stange from which, like certain other words with a technical sense, it may have traversed to Russian. It is also true that VN also used it for a (generally wooden) soccer goalpost. I doubt that there is any link here between the suicide journeys in The
Gift and Pale Fire.
I can also offer an amusing sidelight for "beaver." My father once told me about a game played at Cambridge when he was a student there. When one among a company of friends was the first to espy a bearded gentleman he would cry out "beaver," and thereby win a point. A similar game, I am told, is played in present-day Russia using sightings of cats or automobiles of an agreed-upon color.
DN
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"A similar game, I am told, is played in present-day Russia using sightings of cats or automobiles of an agreed-upon color."
During the Soviet times - kids were spotting Ambulances and then you have to catch the its red cross into your hand and make a fist and then you need to open your fist (with the red cross inside, presumably) and let it go to a person who is wearing glasses (pointing to his or hers glasses).
Best, Vladimir M.
________________________________
From: Nabokv-L <nabokv-l@UTK.EDU>
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Sent: Wed, January 20, 2010 10:20:17 AM
Subject: [NABOKV-L] DN: "Stang" and "Beaver" reminiscences
Subject: stangs and beavers
From: Dmitri Nabokov
Date: Wed, 20 Jan 2010 18:13:15 +0100
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum <NABOKV-L@listserv.ucsb.edu>
Dear Friends,
Amid all the admirable research and discourse dedicated to these words and related matters, I noted the mention of "Dmitri's memory" as a possible source of assistance. I can offer the following tidbits. I have a very clear, even tactile recollection of the upright metal posts for passengers to hang onto, usually located near the doors and on the open platforms of European urban public conveyances.The Russian term for them that, as a child, I learned from my father wasштанга [shtanga].That, of course, does not preclude the plethora of other usages and of variants in other languages (such as stang in English, stangue in French, stanga and the aggressive verb stangare in Italian, or the German stange from which, like certain other words with a technical sense, it may have traversed to Russian. It is also true that VN also used it for a (generally wooden) soccer goalpost. I doubt that there is any link here between the suicide journeys in The
Gift and Pale Fire.
I can also offer an amusing sidelight for "beaver." My father once told me about a game played at Cambridge when he was a student there. When one among a company of friends was the first to espy a bearded gentleman he would cry out "beaver," and thereby win a point. A similar game, I am told, is played in present-day Russia using sightings of cats or automobiles of an agreed-upon color.
DN
Search the archive Contact the Editors Visit "Nabokov Online Journal"
Visit Zembla View Nabokv-L Policies Manage subscription options
All private editorial communications, without exception, are read by both co-editors.
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/