A university here really needs a new English teacher since my colleague and countryman fled the Siberian winter, and it's up to me to find one. A Catch-22: I haven't had time to search since I'm teaching extra classes now.

But enough griping. So I finally posted on a Slavic listserve about twelve hours ago, and now I have twenty five applicants. All qualified, all chomping at the bit.

It's a really strange situation. First of all, I've never reviewed anyone's resume before. Most of these people won't get the job, but maybe I could become their friend? Probably not what they're gaming for.

Most of them call me Mr. Brown. I told them to stop.

I think what I'll say is, if you really want to move to Siberia and teach English, send a resume to every university in this fair country. As far as I can tell, most have never dreamed that Americans would want to teach here. Talk about a communication gap. If I weren't swamped and knew how, I would set up a database.