Somewhere, buried deep in the
files of the F.B.I. Building in Washington, D.C., there could be
a folder with my name on it. And if the ghost of old J. Edgar Hoover
ever roams that building by night, examining his massive collection
of files, perhaps he might pause over mine and mutter in his best
ghostly manner, "Hmmm. I wonder why they never went after that
suspicious guy out in Oregon?"
Well, if Hoover's ghost is puzzled, he can thank
Boris and Mishka for it.
The trouble began when I created Boris (formerly
Ivon) as a character. Since he as supposed to be a Bulgarian, I
decided he ought to have a few quips and phrases in his native languages
that he could toss off from time to time. But I quickly ran into
two problems.
First, there was not English-Bulgarian dictionary
to be found in the state. And since this was back in the days before
the internet, I was stumped for a way to find one.
Secondly, Bulgarians, like Russians, use a Cyrillic
alphabet. Bors' words would have to be put into a kind of phonetic
Bulgarian, and how was I going to accomplish that?
|