When war broke out between Britain and Argentina over the Falkland Islands the poet Jorge Luis Borges quipped it was like watching two bald men fighting over a comb. With the war in Ukraine there’s only one bald man and his comb has run off like the nose in Gogol’s story.
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Putin’s comb talks to strangers and like the ghost of a horse it says I’m free of my former burdens. Do you know what it’s like to “pretend comb” a psychopath? Do you have any idea at all?
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And the dish ran away with the spoon. Putin’s comb has run off with Stalin’s mustache cup.
Dialects of disgraced objects…
George Washington’s dentures, made from the teeth of slaves…
Putin’s comb, made from the blackened fingernails of Beria.
The comb protests, you can only push a joke so far.
Ukraine agrees.
Planet of the Blind 