Essay 139. A victim of essays

Thirst for knowledge is yet irresistible. It was the thirst which brought Mikhailo Lomonosov (1711 – 1765, was a Russian polymath, scientist and writer, who made important contributions to literature, education, and science) to Moscow. This is the thirst which makes young people enter universities. Well, for instance, me and my fellow students. For sure there are people who put money in the first place. People of that kind used to be in the minority before, and these days there is a sufficient number of them. However I am talking about another thing, I just rush from side to side. I am talking about modern times. To be more precise, about the essays I write. So I’ve worked on them for a year already. Around today 120 essays have been written, and a book “The Guys” has been published. The bush telegraph works among my former fellow students, and more and more people learn about the essays, read them on my site and leave their comments in the guest book. Generally speaking, I am using benefits of civilization and the internet at full blast. However Olya Ptitsyna, sorry, she was Ptitsyna when was unmarried, and now she is Olga Petrovna Shilnikova.

So Olya hates computers and everything related to them. It is just like that. She knows herself and is worried that she can become an internet or computer addict. What can be said here? Of course, there is some truth in it. For instance, for me computer is a tool for my work, and I cannot do without it. However Olya could and did fine without a computer for a while. How, from who and when she learned that I was writing essays remains a mystery. However the rumors were growing bigger and wider, she was told by someone and then by someone else about the essays, and that she was mentioned in them. And the rumors were the most contradicting. Well, Olya would not be a woman, if she did not become very curious. She started asking questions to people of what and how. And she got a reasonable answer of go to Syedyshev’s site and read yourself, and she was even given the site’s address: www.syedyshev.com.

Well, what else could she do? Did she have to stick to her principle of never touch a computer, or act to satisfy her extreme curiosity? Olya decided to throw a coin: heads or tails; in case of heads to go, and if there were tails, forget about everything and stay at home. An American coin left after the last trip was right on the table. The coin rolled under a bed, and her husband was not at home to reach to it.

So Olya made up her mind to visit her acquaintances and read herself what kind of crap Syedyshev was writing, that everybody was so interested in it. 
 She was reading all day long and read everything that was on the site. It was night already, time to return home. Under the influence of what she had just read Olya came out of the building, slipped and crashed down. “And I have not touched a computer for so many years, why have I dragged myself there? These essays are the last thing I need!” – those were her first thoughts after the fall, and then there was sharp pain in her arm.

Semen Semenovitch Gorbunkov (one of the main characters of a film “The Diamond Arm”, released in 1968. This is a Russian cult film and is considered to be one of the funniest comedies of its time.), when in a similar situation said: “I slipped, fell down, fainted…closed fracture, came to myself – there was a plaster cast”.
Later Olya made jokes about herself saying that she had fallen victim to the essays!

24 June, 2012