Hi, Alexander!  Recently you wrote in a message to Ardith Hinton:

AK>  A situation! I missed that damn thing again! ;-)


          You missed the article, then corrected yourself.  Not to worry.  The
other day I unintentionally omitted a proposition.  Even English teachers make
misteaks.  What matters AFAIC is that you can correct your own errors....  :-)



AK>  In Russia people can buy stable foreign currencies and
AK>  store it under mattresses.


          Uh-huh.  We can buy some foreign currencies from the banks here, but
it seems there's risk involved in whatever course of action one takes....  ;-)



AK>  "to covet" is "to want very much".


           Yes.  Generally, however, the word implies that what a person wants
belongs to someone else.  It's akin to "envy", but without the connotations of
bitterness I see in the dictionary definition of the latter.



AK>  Why does the sticker is coveted?


           Why did I covet this sticker?

            a)  I found it amusing because I might have said the same about my
                own car if I'd thought of it first.

            b)  AFAIK it is/was a rarity.  The only example I've ever seen was
                on another old clunker which passed me not very far from where
                Dallas & I lived years ago.  I'd have considered buying one of
                my own, but had no idea where to find one.  Every time we went
                to an automotive shop I searched for it in vain.



AH>  although I drove it to a few less than salubrious parts
AH>  of Vancouver.

AK>  So, "salubrious" can be pertain not only to the person's
AK>  health, but to the criminal situation, too.


           That is essentially what I had in mind, although you probably won't
see any reference to the latter in the dictionary....  :-))



AK>  Do the locks in the old vehicles are more sophisticated?


           My car came with two keys... one for the trunk & the glove box, one
for the doors & the ignition (the former being a lot more complicated than the
latter).  And unlike our rental car it didn't have a lever you could pull from
inside the car to unlock the trunk.  Anyone who wanted to break into the trunk
would have had to work where folks on the sidewalk could easily see them.  :-)



AK>  Do they pay now in cash, or people now pay with credit
AK>  card only?


           COVID-19 has turned the world upside down.  Many businesses are now
reluctant to handle cash... but when customers pay by credit card the business
must pay an annual fee as well as a commission on each purchase.  When smaller
businesses such as Mom & Dad's Grocery can't afford to do that they must still
accept cash.  If their produce is better & cheaper than what I can find at the
local supermarket, and they offer more variety, I may still choose to buy such
things from Mom & Dad whenever their shop isn't particularly crowded.

           I can order stuff online, pay for it by credit card, and pick it up
at the supermarket without having to enter the building... but this system has
its disadvantages.  Often they run out of something & you don't know until you
get there that they don't have it although other stores do.  Another problem I
see is that I like to choose produce, milk, eggs, and whatnot for myself.  :-Q




--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+