Hi, Mark!  Recently you wrote in a message to alexander koryagin:  
    
   ak>  Yesterday, a Polish customs station was paralyzed by  
   ak>  a Russian truck loaded with matreshka dolls.  
    
   ml>  one needs to know what matreshka dolls are  
    
    
            ... usually spelled "matryoshka" or "matrioshka" in Canada.  I  
  have  
  also seen it spelled "matrushka".  While it appears to be spelled with an  
  "e"  
  in Russian, their vowel sounds differ from ours at times....  :-)  
    
    
    
   ml>  for this one to make sense and be funny...  
    
    
            I had to think about it for a moment... but our daughter has such  
  a  
  doll.  AFAIC they're classic wooden toys of the sort which can still be  
  found  
  here in Vancouver if you know where to look.  They're quite readily  
  available  
  in Alaska, especially in shops frequented by tourists.  I suppose there  
  could  
  be folks in other parts of North America who have never heard of them.  
  Okay,  
  so you take the doll apart in the middle & find another doll.  You repeat  
  the  
  same exercise any number of times, depending on how large a bit of tree  
  trunk  
  the wood carver started with & how much you can afford to spend.  Now  
  imagine  
  what reaction this might get at an international border... and how a bunch  
  of  
  grownups might be taking these dolls apart in order to establish to their  
  own  
  satisfaction that there is absolutely nothing hidden inside them except  
  other  
  dolls.  As one who has travelled to the USA, I can certainly relate...  
  [BEG].  
    
            JFTR, I'm not criticizing border guards from other countries.  
  When  
  we were flying from Whitehorse to Vancouver, a month or two prior to 9/11,  
  we  
  encountered a young man at the airport who insisted on examining my own &  
  our  
  daughter's deodorant bottles in detail... while an older co-worker looked  
  on.  
  Although he'd been introduced to us earlier in our hostess's house it was  
  his  
  duty to ensure we weren't trying to smuggle bear spray... which is illegal  
  in  
  Vancouver... and the size & shape of the containers was roughly similar.  :-  
  )  
    
    
    
    
  --- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+  
   * Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)