|
Sex’n’drugs’n’rock’n’roll. That was what used to sell magazines. Deidre Dare’s column in the previous issue of Passport attracted more visitors to our site than any person, article, or event in over six years of publishing, and our average daily hit-list is in the thousands. No, it’s good old sex and everything related to it that sells. Perhaps we have been barking up the wrong tree for over half a decade? Perhaps our mission to haul readers up steep cultural slopes to glimpse the depth of the Russian soul and all the totally depressing stuff that goes with it has been in vain?
No, there will always be a scribe with a mission working at Passport, determined to lead you up the path to true cultural enlightenment. But we do need more fun, especially as the weather gradually improves, and we vaguely recollect that there is in fact a reason to struggle on: the summer holidays are coming!
No less than two travel articles this month point the way to getting it together to leave the city once in a while. For all US citizens, our cover was not supposed to frighten you more than we already are. Nevertheless, Art Franczek’s article will hopefully point out the ridiculousness of our situation in comparison, tax-wise to most other foreign citizens working here. And we only have your own government to blame.
And if you have read this far you are one of the zero point two percent of expats who read at all! Congratulations! For more about reading habits, see Elena Rubinova’s article on Russians’ reading habits. As usual, there is too much in this issue to comment on, and anyway, letters at the front of magazines aren’t read anyway, so enjoy it, OK?
Happy Chinese New Year! Grrr!
John Ortega
Owner and Publisher
|