Never read soviet newspapers before dinner

04 August 2012 — San Francisco

From Mikhail Bulgakov’s wonderful novel Heart of a Dog:

—If you care about your digestion, my advice is–don’t talk about bolshevism or medicine at table. And, god forbid–never read soviet newspapers before dinner.

—Hmm… But there are no other newspapers.

—In that case don’t read any at all. Do you know I once made thirty tests in my clinic. And what do you think? The patients who never read newspapers felt excellent. Those whom I specially made read Pravda all lost weight. […] And not only did they lose weight. Their knee reflexes were retarded, they lost appetite and exhibited general depression.

Recently, whenever I find myself reading comments on Hacker News, speculations by tech pundits or another deep article from our creative, witty and intelligent bloggers I think of this quote. Then I replace bolshevism with semicolons, soviet newspapers with Svbtle blogs and Pravda with Hacker News. And then I close that tab and move on with my day.

My appetite has never been better.