This may be heresy around here, but I think this is one case where the syndication cut actually helped the joke. In syndication, without the Uter bit, it goes right to Professor Largo saying "Nobody likes Milhouse" after Janey, as if he couldn't even let the game continue given how shocked he is that anyone, anyone…

her?

It took me until page 300 for IJ to really "click," but it's so completely worth it once things start to make sense. Just make your way through and marvel at the language, no need for everything to line up straight yet.

Yeah this is my first Dostoevsky as well, actually my first big Russian novel period. It can be tough going at parts, but it's unmistakably quality literature, sometimes even just sentences at a time. The Russian names were a bit tricky to get down at first (especially because every character has a nickname or two)…

Watched two more episodes of Black Mirror, "Be Right Back" and "White Bear". I thought both were fantastic, as is the series as a whole so far, though it would be nice if it were more accessible in the US. I thought "White Bear" was terrifying as I was watching it, but it's a little comforting to think that the…