Notes from Slavic Cataloging, Pt. 2

this morning starts with polish. actually, it starts in the sub-basement, filling up the cart with new books to check through. We’re up to last August, only seven months backlog to work through! Last time I went to the sub-basement there was a crumbling newspaper on a table near the stacks of slavic orders. It was a Seattle publication from 1904 or so, and had a front page story decrying the fact that the price of vegetables increased far more than the cost of transport between eastern Washington and Seattle. How could they possibly charge so much more, when it certainly costs less than a cent, per item, to bring them from Yakima?

**

The first polish book I find copy for has the author’s face inside the back cover, right where I need to put the barcode. She has crooked teeth, and is drinking a cup of tea, so I carefully place the barcode over her forehead, just above her eyebrows.

**

From a string of Bulgarian books:
–Book printed in Blagojevgrad — probably where a certain former governor’s forebears came from. Insert your own Bulgarian/gipsy joke here.
–Title: Diplomatic records on the ruination of Bulgarians from Macedonia and the region of Edirne in the times of reforms 1904-08

**

Here’s a great name: Ладыженская [Ladyzhenskaya]. For those of you unfamiliar with slavic languages, “zhenskaya” also means lady.
Also, Безносикова [Beznosikov] — no socks.

[Ed. –The native speaker in my life helpfully reminds me that носки [noski] is socks, but носик [nosik] is a diminutive of нос [nos], or nose. These are the kinds of non-native mistakes that are easy, and silly to make. TNSPIML once commented on someone’s sedimentary lifestyle (meaning sedentary), and my mother once explained in Russian that my younger sister was seven o’clock (семь часов) instead of seven years (семь лет). Anyhoo, it’s more unfortunate that way – I’d rather be without socks than without a nose.]

**

Russian-Chinese Customs Dictionary — customs, as in border-crossing customs.