On an Election Observation Mission there are opportunities to chat, not always about election methodology. A UK observer told me that he had been Master and huntsman of the Pimpernel beagles and jolly smart he must have looked in his uniform: green coat, old gold collar, green stockings and black cap.
With an observer from the US, gerrymandering cropped up. I certainly didn’t know its etymology although I expect you do. Just in case, Elbridge Gerry was Governor of Massachusetts in 1812 and redrew the election map in Boston to benefit his party. The shape of his new constituency looked like a salamander and – hey presto – Gerry-mandering!
Robert’s favourite opera is Eugene Onegin so it’s fortunate that I like it too. When our interpreter introduced herself as Tatyana I mentioned the opera. With enormous erudition and tact she talked of Pushkin’s novel in verse that inspired Tchaikovsky’s opera, telling me that she thought Pushkin’s masterpiece was inspired by Byron’s Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. It is possible that Tatyana will read this and, if so, I must own up that I was put at a disadvantage being unfamiliar with both works. I did what Bertie Wooster would have done and appended ‘to the tower came’ fervently hoping that no further knowledge of Byron would be required. One thing I did know; an opening gambit like that was likely to make her a most agreeable companion during the long hours we would be together on Election Day – and so it proved. Her tact was revealed when I discovered yesterday that Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came was published in 1855 and has nothing to do with Pushkin’s poem published 1825 – 1832. It refers to King Lear.
Child Rowland to the dark tower came,
His word was still ‘Fie, foh, and fum
I smell the blood of a British man.
— King Lear, Act 3, scene 4
Regrettably most of my conversations with Ukrainians were strictly business. However, on Monday morning when the District Election Committee were wearily trying to wrap things up, I sat beside a committee member. She had worked in Berlin and her daughter lives in Rimini, cue for me to mention that it is Federico Fellini’s birthplace. With Tatyana’s assistance we got along rather well.