two new, iridescent hundred-rouble bills

“And Alyosha held out to him two new, iridescent hundred-rouble bills.”

—Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, 1990.

the little pink envelope

“Praying now, he suddenly happened to feel in his pocket the little pink envelope that Katerina Ivanovna’s maid had given him when she caught up with him in the street. He was troubled, but finished his prayer. Then, after some hesitation, he opened the envelope.”

—Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, 1990.

black cockroaches

“ ‘I squash black cockroaches at night with my slipper: they make a little pop when you step on them.’ ”

—Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, 1990.

am I not a bedbug

“ ‘I loved depravity, I also loved the shame of depravity. I loved cruelty: am I not a bedbug, an evil insect? In short—a Karamazov!’ ”

—Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, 1990.

A Typographic Survey of the City of London

The Nazz

Open My Eyes

‘green and greasy’

“Counting the money, I found there was three thousand dollars of ‘green and greasy,’ worn paper money, in small bills.”

—Jack Black, You Can’t Win, 1926.

a ‘salmon belly’

“He unrolls the bills, looking at them with a mysterious smile on his fat face. You don’t understand his smile and wonder if he is thinking how he cheated somebody in a poker game; he looks like a gambler.
    The roll interests you, the outside one is what you call a ‘salmon belly.’ It is a yellowback—a big bill.”

—Jack Black, You Can’t Win, 1926. The money is Canadian.

‘foot juice’ or ‘red ink’

“The wine dumps, where wine bums or ‘winos’ hung out, interested me. Long, dark, dirty rooms with rows of rickety tables and a long bar behind which were barrels of the deadly ‘foot juice’ or ‘red ink,’ as the winos called it.”

—Jack Black, You Can’t Win, 1926.