Who is Osima?
Clicking through The Sun's digital photo archives, I came across this picture. It was taken at the Museum of Russian Vodka, located, of course, in the Motherland.
But it was the caption which really intruiged me:
Osima, the legendary inventor of vodka, referred to as "the ghost of the museum".
Curious, I Googled "Osima" and "vodka" but found nothing. Now I'm really stumped.
Who was Osima? And why doesn't he get any recognition online? Did our photographers/archivists get the spelling wrong?
(Sun archive photo)
I've been The Baltimore Sun's nightlife and local entertainment reporter for a couple years, and it's surprising how much the scene has grown in that time. Most of Baltimore's bars and clubs are unpretentious places with fairly cheap drinks and plenty of character. I like dancing and think this city needs more clubs, but nothing beats having a cold, locally brewed beer with friends in a comfortably full corner bar.
Comments
оковита-OSIMA might be the anglican spelling of the Ukranian word for Vodka.
Posted by: jmgiordano | January 2, 2009 8:55 PM
I gotta admit, I'm stumped on this one! And after answering the infusion question so well. Hrm...
I've been trying every plausible combination of Cyrillic characters I can think of. And reading the history of vodka in Russian isn't producing any results. Maybe Osima is one of the monks that people credit with vodka's invention. I'll keep working on it.
Posted by: incunabulum | January 2, 2009 10:35 PM
From Wikipedia,
There is a joke on how people drink vodka in different countries.
Sweden: With water.
Finland: Without water.
Russia: Like water.
The Vodka Museum - History of vodka:
http://www.vodkamuseum.ru/english/history/
Examiner.com (Newark) links to this a post after copying the first part.
http://www.examiner.com/r-5019645~Who_is_Osima_.html
Posted by: GDA | January 3, 2009 1:16 PM
Hunting around the web, I found this picture at PR - ehto zhizn (PR - it's life), but with no caption. There's no mention of "Osima" on the Museum's web site, where they say that
"in 1429, foreign visitors brought aqua vitae to Moscow once again; this time it was served as the universal cure. The liquid was appreciated at the court of the young prince Vasily the Second Vasilievitch, who later lost his eyesight in the feud with his relatives and got the nickname of «Dark». As the drink was too strong, it was normally diluted with water. It is likely that the idea of diluting alcohol (that is what aqua vitae actually was) with water was the starting point for manufacturing Russian vodka that was produced from grain, which was abundant in Russia. In the 15th century the monasteries of Russia began producing grain vodka."
They also, of course, refer to Mendeleev, whose doctoral dissertation was called "On Combining Alcohol and Water" and whose findings set the national standard for vodka.
I'm afraid your photographers had their leg pulled. The photo seems to be a simple diorama of early vodka production.
Posted by: The Ridger | January 5, 2009 10:31 AM
I hate being hoodwinked! Osima was a fraud!
Sniffle.
Posted by: Sam Sessa | January 5, 2009 1:21 PM
whoever he was, he sounded lika turrurrist.
Posted by: Allan | January 5, 2009 1:56 PM