merchant navy in the Black Sea

foi no monte ararat que pousou a arca de noé e os mortos permanecem reconhecíveis, os seus corpos intactos, durante longos anos no fundo deste mar.

"The great shipbuilding families (all from the Black Sea coast) were disinclined to take their disputes to court, preferring the naked passion that only weapons can satisfy. They'd begun with fleets of small wooden boats, competing for government contracts, but this did not lead to free competition in the Western sense; instead they sent out bands of brigands to intimidate each other; from time to time, when they tired of killing each other, they would do as the princes of the Middle Ages had done and give each other their daughters in marriage, but the ensuing periods of peace would never last long, and soon they'd be shooting each other again, much to the distress of the girls who now belonged to both families. After they begun to buy up barges and build up fleets of small cargo ships, and one of their daughters had married the President's son, they became regulars in 'Have You Heard?' [gossip magazine], whereupon my mother would carefully follow Rose-Nymph's descriptions of their 'splendiferous caviar and champagne-drenched' parties".
Pamuk em Istanbul.
(com a piada de me lembrar várias pessoas que conheço, pessoalmente ou de as ver repetidamente nos mesmos locais, e o cuidado e a atenção com que lêem sobre esta ou aquela festa)