Game 5- gjhe, shto, kto. Eto fcyo.

When I was completing sixth grade my parents received a letter from the junior high school.  I had to sign up for foreign language study in 7th grade.  We had to make first, second, and third choices.

All the popular kids were signing up for French.  Therefore, to remain or become popular, I decided that French would be for me and figured that would be a done deal.  This was the background for a battle royale at home.  My folks decided that there was relatively limited value in studying French. France was on the way out as a super power. On the other hand, this was the early 60s and the cold war was getting colder daily.  In a year, Kennedy would make his famous Cuban Missile Crisis speech telling Khrushchev to stop bringing missiles to a hostile neighbor.  The US was already competing in what was dubbed a space race with the Russians, and there was talk of building "fallout" shelters in case we were bombed by the enemy.

With this as background and argument, my folks decided that I would study Russian.

Russian?

"But Dad" I countered. "Only the geeks are taking Russian."

This was not a persuasive argument.  And the discussion became heated.  I did not know a Russian verb from a French noun. What I knew was that the pretty young women in my class were all taking French and nobody, but nobody, I knew was going for Russian.  Despite my pleas, and against my wishes, I put Russian down as choice number 1.

Okay, at least, I asked--with confidence and exhaustion--put French down as choice number 2.

"No" said those who sired me.  "With the influx of Spanish speaking people in the US, it would be advantageous for educated persons to speak Spanish."

Spanish was a mite more attractive than Russian as I knew a few pals who were going to put that down as number one, but I still lobbied for French.  I lost the argument.

I was now spent and said "put French down for number 3."

Dad's message was something like, "fine, knock yourself out, put French down for number 3."

So, I took Russian and then later some Spanish. Because of the latter I can very very minimally converse in various establishments in Boston and in South Florida.  But to date I have had only a handful of opportunities to employ what little I've retained from studying Russian.

Once on a plane when a Russian immigrant was giving a stewardess a hard time, I acted as the lamest interpreter of all time (since I remember very little from the classes) but convinced the irate passenger that she had to put her carry on box under the seat. I did this mostly by yanking it off her lap and stuffing it under the seat in front of her.  A couple of times I have seen signs with Russian characters and can make out what the signs mean which has afforded me no real advantage over those who had no clue. And on a few occasions I have overheard someone speaking Russian and could make out bits of conversation which has been valueless since they were not speaking to me in the first place.

However, I now have an opportunity to use the words shto, kto, and gjhe.  And the phrase eto fcyo.

Gjhe means Where.  Where the hell was the big Russian center who scored 28 points in game 4 last night.  He amassed a grand total of zero points last night, primarily because he hardly played.

Shto means What.  What the hell was the coach thinking. I have commented previously that if all the Cavs were going to do was throw it into the Russian, then they were losing the advantage of having the best player on the planet handling the ball. But the Russian (name is Mozgov) can score some points.  You take him out and you lose the advantage of having a finisher who can get offensive rebounds and score at least some points.

Kto means Who.  Who is going to score other than James if the Russian is on the bench nearly the whole game.

I have predicted that Golden State will win as I think you cannot be a one man team in the NBA and win.  I am rooting for the Cavs nevertheless because I think James is great and has been unfairly maligned. I will also point out that he is getting whacked and not getting foul calls.  If you sneezed near Jordan he went to the line.  So, I don't think they will win, but hope they do.

Kak (how) are you going to win if nobody else can score but James.  Even with the seven foot Russian I don't think the Cavs can win, but it gives you a chance.

Viewers will note that in all the games that were close, the Cavs were up big before they either squandered the lead or held on.   In order to win in Cleveland the Cavs will have to get a contribution from JR Smith or Mozgov.

Otherwise Eto vcyo.  (This is over).