N feels so lonely without us in Florida that he made a friend. This is the first time since I’ve known him that this happened.

The friend is a Floridian named Frank who was born in 1921. No typo. He invited N over to his place and showed him the photos from his heroic times in WWII.

It’s a lot easier to live to be 101 than for N to make a friend, so I’m kind of stunned.

A strong wind started blowing towards Russia, and finally Ukrainian firefighters managed to get access to the burning nuclear plant.

As the nuclear plant burns, Russian troops continue shelling it and are refusing to let firefighters approach.

“But they can’t be so stupid to not understand that a nuclear explosion will wipe them out first,” people keep saying.

It’s weird because everybody has heard of those religious cults that collectively suicide by the hundreds. What was that guy’s name, Jim Jones? Or the suicide bombers. They know they’ll die. But they are fighting evil. They are going towards their reward in heaven! This is the same thing. The Russians aren’t afraid of dying because they’ve been primed for their jihad for their entire lives.

The Zaporozhye nuclear plant with 6 working reactors is on fire at this very moment.

The publisher of our book about Ukraine saw my photo that I posted earlier today and that I took in (as opposed to on) the campus toilet. He says it’s a lot better than my carefully posed professional photo and he’s taking it for the book cover and promotional materials.

The title has the word “Kharkiv” in it and the cover has a photo of Kharkiv. Before the war, of course. I don’t know how I’m even going to present the book now, knowing what happened to all the beautiful landmarks. The book is an ode to the city, its beauty, its people, and its history. It’s about to go to print.

At this moment, Russians are bombing the area next to the largest nuclear energy facility in Europe. It’s in Enerhodar.

My father always said that Russia is by far the most dangerous country in the world. He turned out to be right.

I’m not posting photos of people but this was all organized by students. I made a bunch of flags to give out and ran out in minutes. The students are really great. Wonderful people. Colleagues came, too I only cried a little bit during the rally. Then I told the students I need to go off campus to cry for a while.

I’m off to the rally. The pants are bright yellow to complete the colors of the Ukrainian flag.

The medals are real. Obviously, civilian.

During WWII, Kharkiv was occupied by the Nazis twice. Terrible destruction. The Nazis, though, never tried to destroy the historic buildings of Kharkiv, the jewels of our architecture. Those buildings were allowed to remain standing until last night when they were destroyed by the Russians.

Now they are targeting the historic Orthodox cathedrals of Kyiv. Those cathedrals survived both Stalin and Hitler. We don’t know if they’ll survive the Russian people in 2022.

An Orthodox priest in a shelled historic cathedral is crying, begging the Russians to think what they are doing. When the Nazis invaded in 1941 Stalin allowed an Orthodox procession to walk around the city praying. Even Stalin! He never touched the Annunciation cathedral in Kharkiv, which is a world-famous example of the Ukrainian baroque architecture. The great university in Kharkiv, the Gosprom building, the Schevchenko Gardens, the historical center. The Nazis didn’t destroy them. The Russians did yesterday.