A few years ago I shot a sparrow on my balcony, so they didn't exactly do this right next to my ear when I sleep for a while.

But this year, coal tits came from somewhere, and they sing MUCH LOUDER.

Have I mentioned lately that sometimes you scare the hell out of me?

What, just you? I thought that was the usual reaction of pretty much everyone.

P.S. This year, I hope to give my students homework.

They will have to find a Nigerian 419 scammer and drive him to tears.

My students usually don't speak English, but neither do Nigerians, so I expect it'll work out somehow.

I'm actually going to make it easier and ask the people at www.419eater.com for addresses where they got typical Nigerian scam

letters translated into Russian. Then I'll hand them to the students.