FREEFORUM

FreeIrad's "Bill of Sale never died" article is going around the café. "Who protects a man who tried to sell a nation?" Good question. I have no answer, only data: in all these years none of us has...

Istanbul report: eleven of us, one flag, one thermos. A policeman asked what we were protesting. We explained. He said "nobody sells a brother" and bought simit for everybody. I am not making up my...

The "sale" remarks have reached Istanbul. Every Turkish friend sends me the video with three crying emojis. And suddenly the Satuu Kagazy is all anybody in the café wants to talk about. Tonight one...

Istanbul: we will stand outside the café tomorrow evening with a flag and a thermos. All eleven of us. Big numbers.

Update for the collectors. This week's sighting comes from a girl who works at a hotel near Taksim: "man with grey hair, Central Asian, very good suit, tipped in dollars." This describes four hund...

Mine sends kurut by bus through Almaty. It arrives in nine days. The kurut is stronger than the bus.

The marshrutka music. Russian chanson, then Mor-Wave, then a sermon, then Russian chanson again. Istanbul buses have one station and it is the driver on the phone with his wife.

Safe, yes. Known, no. I say "Irad" and they say "Iraq?" I say "next to Kyrgyzstan" and they say "ah, Turkic brother!" and give me tea. Being erased has some advantages.

Look at the BOSPHORUS. I look at it every day from the bus. It is not a clue. It is the sea.

Since the roll call: Istanbul has more Iradis than you think. Students, drivers, two girls who do nails in Aksaray, a man who sells phone cases and swears he was a Labor deputy. We meet sometimes i...