Over the past weeks and months, I’ve raised several questions about, or speculated on the futures of, various individuals in difficult or unusual situations. A few of these remain unanswered, and I think they’re important enough to bring up again so that they don’t get lost in history’s dead files. Let’s start with . . .

The Wagner Group. Remember them, and their former leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin? How could we forget the “Where’s Yevgeny” series of blog chapters? We finally did get the answer to the mystery surrounding his whereabouts when he fell to earth and was killed in a mysterious, yet-unsolved plane crash. He reportedly lies buried in a grave near his home town. But what of the thousands of men who had devoted their lives to his cause? Where are all of those loyal mercenaries who had signed up to invade, and maim, and kill on his orders just for the hell of it . . . or for the money? No one seems to be talking about them now, or about the young man — Dmitry Sytii — who had offered to assume the leadership of their Africa branch. Where are Dmitry and his merry men today? I’d really like to know, because not knowing makes me uneasy.

Admiral Viktor Sokolov. Once the commander of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, Sokolov had the misfortune of being in their headquarters in Sevastopol, Crimea, when a Ukrainian missile found its target and destroyed the building. There were reportedly 34 senior officers killed in that attack, but no one seemed to know whether Admiral Sokolov was among them — or if they knew, they weren’t saying. But a couple of days later, he made a cameo appearance in a video of a meeting of Russian brass, looking oddly wooden, eyes closed behind his glasses, uniform shirt open at the neck and with no tie . . . and propped up against some sort of pillow. A few days later, a still photo of him was also released. And after that . . . nothing. So, once again, is the Admiral dead or alive? Were those pictures real or fake? Anyone? Still waiting . . .

The fattest bear in Alaska. This is one I can actually answer. The winner of this year’s Fat Bear Contest is . . . Grazer. She’s a mama bear, and apparently a champion salmon fisherman . . . fisherwoman? . . . fisherbear? . . . whatever. It’s said she even chases the slippery ones who think they’ve gotten away. Good for you, Grazer. Have a wonderful, peaceful sleep in your winter hideaway, living off your accumulated avoirdupois. We’ll look for you in the spring.

The Three Prisoners. Technically, we do know where they are. Their names are Alexei Navalny, Vladimir Kara-Murza, and Evan Gershkovich — three brave men whose only crime was telling the truth. Navalny and Kara-Murza, two outspoken critics of Vladimir Putin’s totalitarian regime, are serving long sentences in some Russian hellhole prison camps on spurious charges, being denied medical care, and looking thinner and closer to death on each of the rare occasions that they are allowed a visitor. Sadly, these two Russian citizens are at the mercy of the Russian “justice” system; but at the very least, we need to keep attention focused on them as their families, friends and legal representatives work to obtain real justice for them.

The third prisoner, Evan Gershkovich, is an American reporter for the Wall Street Journal who, for some unknown reason, has been falsely charged with espionage. He has been in Moscow’s notorious Lefortovo prison since his arrest in March of this year. His trial has been postponed at least once, and is now set for the end of November. He is allowed to write letters to his family; his sister, in a recent NPR interview, said he seems to be holding up well. I hope that’s true. Efforts are being made to obtain his release. It’s almost too bad we can’t resort to Russian methods of simply arresting one of their people on trumped-up charges just to have someone to swap. But we don’t do that.

The Fourth Man. Everyone seems to forget about Paul Whelan — a U.S., Canadian, British and Irish citizen — who has been imprisoned in Russia since December 2018, also on denied charges of espionage. Consistently passed over by the Russians when there have been prisoner exchanges with the U.S., his family continues to fight for his release, thus far without success. He did appear very briefly in a recent propaganda video, looking strong and healthy. But why do they continue to hold him when others have been swapped?

Laverna. Surely you remember Laverna. She’s the surfboard-snatching otter in Monterey Bay who is wanted by the local authorities, presumably for petty theft. If caught, the penalty would be relocation to another, possibly less ideal, part of the California coastal waters. I sometimes dream about Laverna at night, when I see her being towed off behind a Coast Guard cutter, crying “Help me! Help me!” as boisterous surfers take over her ancestral home, laughing loudly, scattering food wrappers and styrofoam cups everywhere, and polluting the beautiful blue Pacific waters. And I wake up calling for Laverna and all her relatives who are being displaced by uncaring humans. “Laverna! Where are you, sweet girl?”

UPDATE: As of September 6th of this year, Laverna was reportedly still at large. You go, girl! “Go, ‘verna! Go, ‘verna! Go, ‘verna!”

*. *. *

And finally . . .

Who shot J.R.? Oh . . . I’m sorry. That was in 1980, and we already know the answer. Besides which, anyone under the age of 50 has never heard of J.R., and couldn’t care less. Forget it. It was just a TV show called “Dallas,” and a nighttime soap opera at that.

But if anyone has heard anything about the rest of these folks, I’d love to know. In the meantime, I’ll be searching the media for clues.

TTFN,
Brendochka
10/15/23