Michael R. Barrick's blog

Monday morning. Malenky is already hard at work ensuring there’s enough fur on the couch.

As a Canadian, how did I not know this until today‽

Sometimes the 21st century lives up to the golden age of sci-fi. This morning I had trouble parking the communal hybrid-electric car I’d reserved using my pocket-computer/video-phone because a coronal mass ejection on the Sun yesterday was causing radio interference in the magnetosphere, upsetting the accuracy of the global positioning satellite network.

Can’t get out of bed; there is a Malenky cat purring in my ear.

Air Progress - World’s Great Aircraft
Edward G. Tripp, Publisher, 1972
Peterson Publishing Co., US, 1972

Veteran and Vintage Cars
Peter Roberts, 1974
Octopus Books, UK, 1974
printed in Hong Kong

Collector’s Cars
Lee Culpepper, 1979
Octopus Books, US, 1979
printed in Hong Kong
ex libris signature on title page, “Ralph F. Barrick”

Automotive Repair Manual: Ford Fairmont / Mercury Zephyr, 1978 thru 1983. 2-Door, 4-Door, Coupe, Station Wagon
Larry Warren and John H. Haynes, 1982, 1983, 1987
Haynes North America, US, 3rd ed. 1987

The Art of Making Miniature Models
(L'Art de construire des modèls réduits)
Daniel Puiboube, 1977
English translation, 1979, John Bartholomew & Sons, UK
ex libris signature “Ralph Francis Barrick”

Carpathian Ruthenia (Zakarpatska Oblast)

The homeland of my paternal ancestors:
https://ift.tt/7gpj01Q

In the 20th century alone: Up until WWI most of this region was part of the Kingdom of Hungary. It was part of the short-lived Western Ukraine Republic in 1918-19. In the interwar period, it was part of the First and Second Czechoslovak Republic. The southern part was ceded to Hungary in 1938. On March 15, 1939 the area declared independence and the Kingdom of Hungary commenced annexation the area the same day, killing 27,000 people. Roughly 70,000 fled east into Soviet Ukraine. Note that the Holodomor, where Stalin’s policies caused millions of Ukrainians to die from starvation, happened only five years earlier. Of the 70,000 that fled in 1939, roughly 60,000 ended up in gulags. After the war, it was annexed by the USSR and became part of Soviet Ukraine. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union it remained part of Ukraine as the Zakarpatska Oblast. Right now the capitol of the oblast, Uzhhorod, is overwhelmed with refugees from the east. Roughly 200,000 have entered Slovakia via Uzhhorod and a great deal of the humanitarian aid coming in from the west is entering via Uzhhorod.