From Abroad

Our Russia correspondent reflects on sad news from home.

He died on February 16 at 8 Walnut Avenue in Larchmont, two days after Valentine's Day. He was one year-old. Doctors said that the cause was low heat in the house and not being fed for four days. Lensky was born around February 10, 1997. Fish, samurai, world traveller, Lensky was named for the romantic poet of Pushkin's "Eugene Onegin" who is killed in a duel with the novel's title character. Lensky himself never led the romantic life that his namesake fancy, but he did exhibit the feeling of modish spleen of the 19th-century aristocratic like the characters in Pushkin's novel. Lensky could always be found languoring in his bowl, not doing much of anything, a bored, flat expression on his face.

In April 1997, Lensky changed his diet from fish food to blood worms. "That was the pivotal moment in his life," said Marshall Lewy, Lensky's lifetime protector and mentor. "Most people say the key moment in his life was when he moved to New Hampshire. That was the most creative period of his life." During this summer, Dr. Bennett schooled him in several fields, such as canoe-building, silent film viewing, and how to cook salmon properly and apply a nice curry. But Lewy argues that, had it not been for the diet change, Lensky might never have lived to see that pleasant summer in Exeter, N.H. "Lensky will be sorely missed," said B. David Florman '99, Lensky's roommate. "He was a damn fine fish."

The Lensky memorial dinner will be served, sauteed with leeks in a white wine sauce, at 7 p.m. at the Larchmont Avenue Oyster Bar and Seafood restaurant. Friends and relatives are encouraged to attend.

Lensky had no children, and he never married.