So I'm looking at the photoessay of pictures of the school in Beslan, that's posted on NYTimes. And I'm not sure if the picture of the shoes or the picture of the chalkboard gets to me more. (Pictures of shoes left behind usually get to me.)

And I'm looking at the photograph of the chalkboard where people wrote "Forgive us" and "We love you" and getting all sniffly.

And then I realize: HEY! Mom said Russians never print! Look at all that printing!

And, okay, mom said that because we still needed to learn Russian cursive and our impulse was to just print. They've been printing for years, just not for schoolwork and letter writing. But still.