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Romanians' Childhood: Analyzing A Big Question

How on earth have we survived our childhood? If you were a child in the 60s, 70s or early 80s, how did you manage to survive? From early childhood on we would travel in buses and cars with neither seatbelts nor airbags… a trip in the trailer of a lorry was a remarkable

Quote Once Upon Our Times

Do perchance fireflies and stars tell each other stories all night long?The stars ask the small insects, the fireflies, what they do in such a short life, and the fireflies don't understand what stars eat to live so long. (aged 12)  by student in The Zaica Exper

Bucurita, Daughter Of The Mountains

excerpt  MARGICA, PAPARUDA: You could die laughing, that's screamingly funny. Hah, hah, hah! MARGICA: Well, I never! Hah, hah, hah!PAPARUDA: Goodness sakes. . . hah, hah, hah!THE EMPEROR: But what's wrong? Why are you both speaking at the same time… what did

The Wolf As Moralist

Can you still remember hearing once a story told to you by meOf the wolf who chanced anointed to the royal throne to be?I shall now impart what followed in his state or polity. Hearing first His lawful Highness that under his reign and ruleMost of his revered lieutenants

Petrea The Fool

excerpt What happened, happened; had it not happened, there would be no story to tell. Once, there was a man, who was so rich that he lost count of his riches. He had such a large courtyard that seven times seven carts pulled by oxen could move in circles, and surrounding

The Purse A'Tuppence

Once there was an old woman and an old man. The old bag had a hen and the old man, a rooster; the woman's hen laid eggs twice a day and the hag would eat a barrel of eggs; and to the greyhead she would give none. One day, the old man lost his temper and spoke:Old woman,

Prince Charming Of A Tear Born

In the days of old, when the people of today were just the project of a distant future, when God Himself trod with His sacred feet the rocky deserts of the earth – in those old times there was a king, gloomy and pensive as the dark midnight, and he was married to a young

One Good Year's Ass And Sure Man's Pass

One day Nassredin the Hajji, down a lane and past a rail,Walking, caught in so much wonder one rich sight, beyond the pale:In a rich man's yard an ass foal gaudily bedecked was, all,Clad in very gaudy harness gold embroidered and preparing for a day's big festival

The Story Of Pacala

Pacala has been a movie hero since as early as 1915. The most recent film, on a much lighter note than the story above, is Pacala's Return, or Pacala 2 (2006), directed by Geo Saizescu (who also directed Pacala, 1974 - click here to see preview), and subject to harsh

Like Then: A Memory With M

I was walking through the campus on a sunny September morning, which was calm, fresh, with a deep blue sky, like then. Then, just as now, the dew that fell during the night on the grass sparkled coldly and delicately. The sun was strong and gentle. Through the pure air passed,

Nobody's Angels

excerpts  PROMISES  Those of us who looked after the severely ill, close to their end in hospitals or foster homes made a lot of promises to them. Some asked for the impossible, namely to save them from death, but most of them only wished not to die alone and, above all,

I'm Bathing In The Daylight

I'm bathing in the daylight as children in the rain. I have no past or future. I'm watching as I runWith joy, along its bright course, the arrow-casting sunAnd fill my thoughts with summer, and fill my thoughts with grain.  Of this merciless joy I shall write: