Bush’s Legs
Thursday, September 1, 2011 at 6:00AM Earlier in the week Elena and I walked to the store to buy "Bush's legs." This blog post is my thoughts as we walked.
The "tragedy of the commons," as it is often called, is what happens when no one owns something—it is misused. This was evident everywhere as we began our walk. Since no one owns the outside of the buildings at my mother-in-law's apartment, they are in disrepair. The inside of these apartments can be quite nice, such as the one where my wife's childhood friend Natalie lives. My mother-in-law's apartment is better than most, as we help her financially. But it wouldn’t be, if she had to do it herself, on her pension of $200 a month. You can thus imagine that the average apartment needs work on the inside too.
There is almost no landscaping. If there was an apartment association, no one would pay the dues. But what seems troubling is the moss that grows on the building at the entrance. Sunlight does not always reach the bottom level between the buildings. We are thinking the dampness is causing our daughter Stacy to cough.
There is some public art work—plastic bottles cut to resemble flowers, and an old tire cut up to represent a bird. Whole tires are laid on the ground as planters, but nothing was planted in them. This sounds worse than it looks.
We walked by the place I mentioned in my first blog post about my trip, a trash dump. What the authorities did was brilliant. Rather than fight the people, they put in dumpsters. This is a great improvement, although they do not empty them often enough.
The grocery store itself was not as clean as an American would like. They were cleaning it while we were there. Often this would be done before opening, but not here in Russia. The mix of products is different than I am used to. A lot more alcohol and candy—and a lot less fruits and vegetables.
The fruit would not pass muster in an American store. It was bug marred. But this got me to thinking. Which is better: the American approach to fruits and vegetables—picking the fruit before it is ripe, hauling it 1,000s of miles, and spraying the heck out of it to achieve that pristine look? Or is the Russian approach better—the food is grown locally in season and not sprayed with large amounts of pesticides? Intellectually I would say the Russia approach is better. But my eyes, corrupted by Babylonian marketing, prefers the pristine, fake, and artificial.
Things are more expensive here than one would expect with the low wage rates. One reason is that there are twice as many employees as one would expect. (I have seen ice cream stands with two employees.) Another reason is that we add the sales tax at the point of sale, taking into consideration the prices. In Russia, with the Value Added Tax (VAT) system the taxes are baked into the sale price.
Russian stores also tend to buy things in smaller quantities. Capital for inventory is at a premium. This must raise their costs considerably. You see a lot of vegetable stands as you drive through Murom. One lady I saw was selling her potatoes herself. (At least it looked that way.) They were great looking potatoes that would have fetched a premium in America for baking.
Bush's legs looked good so we bought some. This is a Russian slang expression for the fact that much of the dark meat chicken in Russia is imported from America. We American's have a mania for white meat. So it makes sense to ship dark meat to other countries who do not care about this like we do. This started during the first Bush presidency, thus the nick name Bush's Legs.
Walking home carrying a load was not something I was used to. This got me to thinking about transportation in Russia which I will talk about soon.
Reader Comments (2)
Sounds like you need to get a backpack. :)
Interesting comments. I like dark meat. I see Smart Chicken (no hormones or antibiotics or animal products in the feed) boneless, skinless chicken breasts for $6.99/pound. This is mostly what the stores carry. I wonder to myself, where are the other parts? I found some Smart Chicken Bush's legs for $2/pound the other day, finally.
Look forward to your posts about transportation in Russia. I would also be curious about energy -- how do they heat? What does it cost?
Eric asks: "I wonder to myself, where are the other parts?" Wonder no more! The other parts go into the gritty "chicken franks", and this stuff: http://www.businessinsider.com/chicken-nuggets-are-made-of-this-pink-goop-2010-10