[…] [I]nfected tulips are weakened by the viruses that cause the very patterns and swirls that fascinated horticulturists and investors in the first place.

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On the breakfast table I can see the remains of: sturgeon, caviare (pink and black), blinies, cottage cheese and two other cheeses, buckwheat, hatchapuri—a bread cheese—and sour cream, hashi (stew), radishes and spring onions […]

Purists like to confine Wasps to descendants of the British Isles; less exacting analysts are willing to throw in Scandinavians, Netherlanders and Germans. At the narrowest, Wasps form a select band of well-heeled, well-descended members of the Eastern Establishment; at the widest, they include Okies and Snopeses, Holy Rollers and hillbillies.