Babies in Russia - lots of them.

One of our readers, Jack, is in Russia, or Tataristan to be exact (I love all the little Stans ... for years I had a key chain of the Kazakstan national flag which briefly was a Muslim country with more nuclear weapons than you could shake a stick at), and is making some fascinating observations of the scene in old Kazan.

Last 7-7-07 there was a surge, to use a current expression, in marriages here in the USA, as well as in Kazan. So much so that the streets were nearly deserted.

If there are so many marriages, then one would expect that in about nine months there should also be a surge in births (well, it worked that way for my favorite Irish American and my favorite Cuban American couple)**. This is especially significant in Russia where the birth rate has been low and the death rate, mainly due to alcoholism among men, has been high. Jack has some comments on all this here.

I am continually amazed at the quality of observations and writing on some blogs - fewer than I would like but more than I should have expected.

** Maeráed was one result, Joey Sobrino the other. Since Mr Sobrino's dad is 1/4 Irish, is it something about the Emerald Isle?

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