Master of the Severe Style Petr Pavlovich Ossovski celebrates his birthday today. He has also recently been decorated for services to the Cossack people. I visited him in his studio yesterday. He was suffering from a hangover after an evening of cheap vodka. He compared the vodka unfavourably to a bottle of vintage scotch he drank recently at a dinner in Lipetsk. It cost 8000 roubles (about $350), apparently, and he had to drink the whole bottle alone because the others at the table were either driving or of the champagne persuasion. The next morning, he told me, his head was perfectly clear and he did a full day's work. Happy eighty-third birthday, Petr Pavlovich!