Pleased to meet you,

Won't you guess my name?

It's a hot May in Moscow in the 1930s. The Muscovites are a bit edgy from the chronic housing shortage, stifling weather, and excess vodka consumption. But then a strange "foreign visitor", Woland, and his even stranger retinue put on a Variety Act that involves shenanigans such as taking off the emcee's head and putting it back on. Who is this foreign visitor, and why is it that anyone who crosses him winds up dead, in an insane asylum, or even worse, in Yalta?

If you're a bit stifled by our own hot weather, check out The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. It's not as frivolous as I've made it sound, and it is textured, funny, and very rewarding. The translation by Diana Burgin and Katherine Tiernan O'Connor is highly recommended, and has useful notes to help explain some of the cultural and linguistic quirks of this time and place. There's also a fantastic web site from Middlebury College that includes a timeline, character descriptions, and maps.

As you run to the library to check it out, I hope I'm not giving too much away by revealing that Mick Jagger wrote "Sympathy for the Devil" after Marianne Faithfull gave him a copy. Who knows, perhaps it'll inspire you to write your own song, or at least be wary of black cats drinking vodka.