Robarts: 1; Zh. 0.

Yesterday I went to my old stomping grounds in the U District to play with some microfilm. I forgot that a library can be a pleasant place. I forgot that a library can have in its holdings all of the obscure books in a Slavic language that I could possibly ever want. I forgot that I like spending time in libraries. I was ready to weep as I left the Suzzallo Allen Library at the University of Washignton yesterday and thought about returning to Robarts, which is not a pleasant place, which forces me to rely heavily on ILL, and where I do not like to spend time. Thus, Robarts will forever win the battles because it sucks. But if I finish this dissertation, I have won the war.

I didn't actually accomplish everything I needed to accomplish yesterday. This is the first time I've ever sifted through newspapers on microfilm looking for the magic word: Lermontov. I have flipped through journals, which is not that traumatic an experience. Journals tend to come out once a month and have a table of contents. Newspapers are daily and have no sign posts other than every Thursday is the lit-page day. So, from 10.00 to 4.00, I sat on an uncomfortable chair scrolling through reels and reels of film. I should amend that, in six hours I made it through four reels of film or two years' worth of material and found only two articles, both reviews of Letters about Lermontov. I have at least eight more years to go. Guess what I'll be doing this Christmas? Oh, and if anyone has an pointers out there on how to streamline the process, I would appreciate hearing them. -Zh.