Posting has been light this week as I have been traveling in Russia. I was in Moscow on Saturday, then took a fast train to St. Petersburg yesterday, and spent the entire day just walking around the city. Pictures shall of course follow in due time, once I’m back in the old country (oy…) and have a more-or-less stable internet connection.

I do want to say one thing before I proceed: yes, the women in Moscow are pretty special. But you haven’t really seen anything yet until you’ve been to St. Petersburg. I am not joking about this – the women here make their Muscovite sisters look boring.

While we are on the subject of women – I figured it might be worth walking on the lighter side of things for a moment and looking at some life lessons from that paragon of male excellence, Mr. Bean:

Try those moves out on your next date. I’m sure it will go swimmingly.

In all seriousness – Rowan Atkinson is a comedy genius. He is capable of plenty of ribald, slapstick, downright stupid physical comedy – as evidenced by his long-running tenure as Mr. Bean. But if you have not seen his more highbrow stuff, you are missing out on some truly great deadpan comedy. His work in Blackadder Goes Forth, for instance, remains a real gem of comic timing.

And then there are the classic live segments involving his role as the Devil welcoming sinners to Hell:

And his turn as a priest reading the Gospel of Luke:

I know, I’ve pointed most of these clips out before, but hey, the classics never get old, after all.

Here is one that I had not seen before, however: his turn as the psychotic headmaster telling the father of a pupil that he has killed the boy, which has to be one of the best dark-humour sketches that I have ever seen: