I had a sudden recollection this week after I reviewed online statistics this week stating that of all the nations of the world, Russians read my Google Blogs more frequently than any other foreign-country's citizens.
In 1988 or 1989, during a period in which I resided in El Campo, Texas, where I was employed full-time as an education-beat and general-assignment reporter for the
"(El Campo) Leader-News" semi-weekly general-circulation newspaper, I received a reply Christmas card message from Russian-based newspaper journalist Mark Porubcansky.
Mark Porubcansky had been a reporter coworker of mine at "The Journal" daily newspaper in New Ulm, Minnesota for about one and one-half years in the early 1980s.
In the late 1980s, when Mark was stationed in the Soviet Union as a reporter for The Associated Press, he sent me a Christmas card on behalf of himself, his very devoted and attentive wife, Sarah, and their wonderful daughter, Anna.
"You are turning into a first-rate fiction writer!", the Christmas greeting from Mark Porubcansky stated (approximate quote). It is likely that Mark's Holiday Season greeting to me, mailed to me from either Russia or Finland, had also referred to myself as somehow having a public literary stature in Russia as of the late 1980s: "You (John Kevin McMillan) have quite a reputation these days for being a first-rate fiction writer!" (approximate quote).
I was baffled by that message from Mark Porubcansky, who had identified himself to me in the early 1980s as being a gentleman of Polish ancestry, I believe he said.
I was not aware of pursuing any fiction-writing during the one-year period when I resided in El Campo, Texas. I was instead writing factual news stories and factual feature stories for the "Leader-News" in El Campo, in addition to factual-minded journal writing I pursued during my leisuretime.
To this day, I am not sure what prompted Mark Porubcansky, an apparently friendly former coworker of mine and apparent personal friend of mine or friendly acquaintance of mine, to send me a Holiday Season greeting declaring me to have a reputation for being a "fine fiction-writer".
Was Mark possibly encouraging me to pursue fiction-writing during my leisuretime? Or was he possibly indicating with possible mild sarcasm on his part that Mark Porubcansky somehow possibly questioned the accuracy of some of the writing I had pursued in the late 1980s?
I recently read through online research that Mark Porubcansky and his wife, Sarah, currently reside together in Minnesota.
It is likely that Mark Porubcansky might know why Russians read my Google Blogs more frequently than the citizens of any other foreign nation in the entire world.
I recently read through online research that Mark Porubcansky and his wife, Sarah, currently reside together in Minnesota.
It is likely that Mark Porubcansky might know why Russians read my Google Blogs more frequently than the citizens of any other foreign nation in the entire world.
If Mark happens to somehow learn about this particular blog of mine, I would welcome a note from him or phone call from him on what might account for my own very surprising appeal among Russians. My e-mail address is: "mcmillanj@att.net". My home phone number is: (512) 342-2295.
My own ancestry is overwhelmingly British---a full-three fourths English and Scottish, in fact. My only other ancestral identity I have, from what Mother told me in my childhood, is German. Her own mother in rural Iowa, whose own maiden name was Helen Siegling, was a hard-working farm wife who apparently spoke fluent German and was 100 percent German in ancestry. I am fairly sure my own mother, Phyllis Delores (maiden name Gardner) McMillan, told me in my childhood that I am one-fourth German in ancestry.
My own ancestry is overwhelmingly British---a full-three fourths English and Scottish, in fact. My only other ancestral identity I have, from what Mother told me in my childhood, is German. Her own mother in rural Iowa, whose own maiden name was Helen Siegling, was a hard-working farm wife who apparently spoke fluent German and was 100 percent German in ancestry. I am fairly sure my own mother, Phyllis Delores (maiden name Gardner) McMillan, told me in my childhood that I am one-fourth German in ancestry.
I have never been invited to visit Germany or England or Scotland---nor have I ever been invited to visit Russia. I would welcome an invitation to visit any of those four countries.
My only concern might be that if I were to someday visit Russia, possibly the Russian government might somehow decline to let me either return to the United States or travel from Russia to a possibly friendlier nation such as Sweden or England or Scotland or Germany or France or Ireland or Greece or Poland or Spain.
I think this is an anxiety, whether justifiable or not, that many American citizens have when they reflect on a worst-case scenario that might occur to them if they were to visit the traditionally-communist nation of Russia.
I think this is an anxiety, whether justifiable or not, that many American citizens have when they reflect on a worst-case scenario that might occur to them if they were to visit the traditionally-communist nation of Russia.
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