>>>Are you originally from Russia?
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>>Yes
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>Ed, I was wondering about this so I'm glad Doug asked. Your English is so good that I've been reading your posts for 1-2 years and never wondered about this until lately when you used some Russian in one of your posts.

Actually, it's not good enough. Some guys figured out this and purposedly throw long tirades at me :-). I don't mind, but it's sometimes difficult to get through them.

>Don't know if you like science fiction (many good Russian science fiction writers) but there is a classic Robert Heinlein novel called "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress." When I picked up the novel I thought: there is something strange about this dialogue but I can't quite put my finger on it. Then it hit me: no articles! Just like Russian. It turns out that English is quite understandable without them. I mention this only because the fact that you occasionally leave one out where I would put it in was a hint that you were a native Russian speaker.

I hate articles :-). In my previous life I was a scientist, writing articles was my toil.

>Nothing to do with VFP but interesting. How long have you lived in the US?

8 years.