Many Latvians still say that they don’t know who to vote for.
(Nacionālā Neatkarība, 26-29 September 1995)

What thoughts does this text stir in me? What memories does it rouse? They come from the time when I was at school, and the text makes me flinch a little. Because we had a Latvian language teacher who would underline the words “saka, ka” in that sentence and write “yuck” beside them. I still avoid an assonance like that; I am wary of the poo. Others, though, were not afraid.

Autumn is not only about school. Fairly often I drop in on the Facebook page “Latvijas Mikologu biedrība un draugi”. People post pictures of the mushrooms they have found and discuss them, though on a different level from the other mushroom pages. Don’t show up here with a chanterelle. Recently I noticed a new user adding a joke to her find, whereupon the group’s administrator pointed out that in this group you can “get seriously slated” for a joke like that. It wasn’t that the joke was improper or anything, just that it has been seen more often than a chanterelle. Here it is, to be found in the schoolchildren’s page of “Rīgas Balss” as well, sent in by a reader:

– Can all mushrooms be eaten?
– Yes, but some of them only once in your life.

Antra, Rīgas Balss, 26 September 1998

You can snigger, but you can also admire the joke’s staying power. 25 years at least! I reckon it will see out the full 30. The world changes more slowly than we think. Take this prediction, for instance:

Will women no longer be needed in the year 2000?

Mistiskā Sensācija, September 1995

The newspaper “Mistiskā Sensācija”, however, no longer exists.

Another bold prediction. The newspaper introduces the young poets who spent time that summer at the “Aicinājums” camp. Among others, this poem is quoted:

Cobain, you are a corpse,
but I am here.
The world will talk about me,
Are you jealous?
I adore you, no, I
Respect you.
But I will be better, Cobain…
You did not know that I would come after
1994.

Ingus Rubenis, Rīgas Balss, 1 September 1998

Did what the poet foretold come true? It is not the future that matters, but the past. I once claimed that Elsbergs did write about Lennon, but that the poets of our own time wrote nothing about Cobain. Here I have to admit my mistake and go back to school.