IT'S ALL IN THE SPELLING

Today the Associated Press reported that the United States government has decided to spell the name of the capital of Ukraine "Kyiv" instead of Kiev. They say that "Kiev" is the "Russian" spelling, while "Kyiv" is the Ukrainian spelling. That is fascinating, since both Russian and Ukrainian are written using the Cyrillic alphabet. As near as I can tell, "киев" is Russian while "Київ" is Ukrainian. Perhaps when spoken these two sound different, but "Kiev" is not a "Russian" spelling. For some reason this sort of thing just bugs me to no end. Anyway, I'm glad we cleared that up while Ukraine is still independent.

By the way, check this picture of the tight sculpture of the founders of Kyiv. Their names are Kyi, Scheck and Khoriv. Kind of like Romulus and Remus in Rome, but without the cool wolf.