When bringing up the corrected version of my
anagram yesterday, I should have added that Tikhon's (or
Nabokov's, or mine) advice to avoid a mix of
milk and water is really a wise one. Those who follow it do not risk
to upset their stomachs. As to good readers, they always prefer "pure
Bacchus" to "milk of human kindness" or despicable water that abound in
most books.
By the way, here is the alternative version
(that has neither apostrophe in the first part, nor comma in the second) of my
anagram:
IDA I BARON KLIM AVIDOV = BARIN AVOID MILK I VODA
(Ida is a female given name; cf. Ida
Larivière, Lucette's governess who publishes stories and novels under the
penname Monparnass;* Ida is also a story by Bunin, 1925, set in a
restaurant; its hero, a composer, recounts an amorous episode from his past,
getting happily drunk in the process;** i is Russian for
"and;" voda means "water" )
Since Baron Klim Avidov = Vladimir Nabokov, I
wonder if VN knew any Idas? May be the actress and dancer Ida Rubinstein
(1885-1960), whose portrait, "in the costume of Eve," was made by Serov and
who died in Vence? IDA + ZINA (cf. Zina Merts, the heroine of "The Gift") =
ZINAIDA (cf. Zinaida Hippius,
1869-1945, Russian poet, novelist, critic*** and
memoirist)
*Lysevich, a character in Anton Chekhov's stroy
"Women's Realm" (1894), recommends to the heroine Maupassant (French
writer, 1850-93, the earthly male version of Antiterran Monparnass),
whose stuff Lysevich suggests Anna
Akimovna Glagolev should "drink."
**At one point, the hero takes up Faust's area
played by the gramophone: "Je veux un trésor qui les contient tous, je veux
la junesse!" "Faust" is an opera by Gounod. Chekhov lived in Nice, in the
pension Russe, rue Gounod, 9 (the fact reflected in Ada:
2.9).
***One of Hippius's pseudonyms as a critic was
Anton Krayniy (Christopher Mortus in "The Gift" is a satire on both Krayniy and
Adamovich****). Krayniy is Russian for "extreme" (cf.
kraynyaya plot', "prepuce").
****Georgiy Adamovich, 1894-1972, Russian critic
and poet, who had "only two passions in life: Russian poetry and French sailors"
(from VN's Notes to "Vasiliy Shishkov"). ADAMOVICH = AD (Russ.,
"hell") + MOVA (Ukr., "language")+ CHI (Ukr., "or") = ADAM + OCHI (Russ.,
"eyes") + V = VODA + ACHMIANOV (a character in Chekhov's "The Duel") + Z -
NAVOZ (Russ., "dung").
Alexey Sklyarenko (a literary drunkard of long
standing)