Sprezzatura; B-to-B; OK Sign; Ukraine food

Bapopik at AOL.COM Bapopik at AOL.COM
Wed Jul 17 21:27:34 UTC 2002


OK SIGN--Seen three times so far, on billboards and ads.  Obviously, it's not an insult to use it here in the Ukraine.

SPREZZATURA--From USA TODAY international, 17 July 2002, pg. 7B, col. 3:
   While reading _The New York TImes_ a couple of Sundays ago, I came upon a word I'd never seen before.  Sprezzatura.  I asked my partner, Jack, if he knew what it meant.  He didn't, and he reads books with hard covers.  I looked in the dictionary.  (THE dictionary?--ed.)  It wasn't there, so I went online, typed in the word, hit "search" and up it popped.
   You probably already know this, but it's from the Italian High Renaissance and describes the attributes of a man who is both a graceful performer and a superficial manipulator.  Because the word was used to describe two young men clawing their way up the ladder of New York society on the arm of Martha Stweart, it was the perfect fit.

B-TO-B--From USA TODAY, 16 July 2001, pg. 11A, col. 3:
   THousands of travelers like Bopp normally slip through the cracks every day using a creative booking practice called "back-to-back" ticketing, also known as "b-to-b."
(Any confusion with B2B?--ed.)

UKRAINE CUISINE--From WHAT'S ON, 12-18 July 2002, pg. 19:
KOZAK MAMAI (...)
   The restaurant offers traditional Ukrainian cuisine, and there is a touch of authenticity in those waiters sneaking around in "sharovary" (baggy Cossack trousers), albeit without "oseledtsi" (the instantly recognisable Cossack hairstyle).  House specials change every week, so regulars are never bored.  Still, the most popular dish remains borsch with "pampushky" (savoury buns).  The favoured dessert remains ice-cream in a basket of baked dough, decorated with fruit, and the best loved drinks on the terrace are "kysil" and "uzvar" (traditional Ukrainian fruit drinks).



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