ENROUTE TV   ENROUTE FM   MEDIA KIT   AIR CANADA   LINKS   WRITERS'   GUIDELINES	WASHINGTON vs MOSCOW Text: SHAWN BLORE Illustration: NORMAND COUSINEAU 1. Soft Drink/Beer Ratio Outdoor drinking in Washington is not yet a federal offence: A Union Station stand was selling Buds in brown paper bags. At 7-Eleven, one Bud was 75 cents (in a 20-pack), four cents less than a Coke. Vodka has given way to beer as the Russian drink of choice; it’s sold everywhere and drunk by everyone – morning commuters and moms with prams alike. A half-litre of Baltika from Moscow’s outdoor kiosks costs 19.5 rubles; so does a slightly larger 600-ml Pepsi. In a perfect world, 1:1 or a score of 100; anything lower is sobering. Washington 100 Moscow    93.3 FORMULA > 2. Carbohydrate Comparison The carb of choice among Washington’s lawmakers is a pretzel from a street cart on Pennsylvania Avenue: plain, salted, buttered or slathered in mustard or cheese sauce. Quality is a mediocre 40, but fat is just 1 g/serving (non-buttered-or-cheese slathered). Moscow’s workaday carbs are flaky puff pastries called pierozhki, with a heavy filling of potato, mushroom, cheese, ham and chicken combinations. It scores a quality rating of 65, with 10 g/serving of fat. A Parisian croissant is a baseline 100; other carbs must rise to the challenge. Washington 44 Moscow    68 FORMULA > 3. Babe and Hunk Index While running the American empire, D.C. denizens apparently don’t have time to spruce themselves up. Washington tallied an abysmal count. (Near the White House, the hunk count was zero.) Muscovite men will earnestly tell you that their women are the most beautiful in the world. (Are the cute ones locked up?) Even hampered by an eight-month winter, 70 years of Communism and spiky leather pumps, Muscovites outscored their D.C. counterparts by far. Summed average of stylish head turners in a crowd of 100. Washington 24 Moscow    34 FORMULA > 4. Street Life Indicator A walk through Washington’s power-snob enclave of Georgetown yields muffins and fruit salads, knock-off designer handbags, Hare Krishnas and homeless folks with cardboard signs. Alas, no clothes or culture. Moscow’s pedestrian-only Arbat Street also lacked culture, but there were sunglasses, electrical transformers, alcohol and tobacco, Russian dolls, old Red Army gear, Gypsy beggars, pony rides and a menagerie of dogs, cats and rabbits for sale. Percentage of goods and attractions available on a busy street or square. Washington 71 Moscow    86 FORMULA > 5. Public Order Index In Moscow, Stalinist city planning has rendered jaywalking impossible: At every intersection, pedestrians cross via a concrete pedestrian underpass. A 9-km taxi ride from the far-off reaches of the city to the Bolshoi theatre took just 31 minutes. At the stoplights, the taxi driver read Bulgakov. D.C. denizens aren’t aggressive jaywalkers, and their traffic is not overly bad. A morning trip from Union Station to George Washington University Hospital took only 16.5 minutes. Average number of jaywalkers in a crowd of 200 people (low score, low fun factor). Washington 3 Moscow    -3.4 FORMULA > Conclusion Washington may have won the Cold War, but in the battle to build a civilized capital, the conquest went to the ex-comrades. Washington   242.0 Moscow          277.9 ----- STANDINGS: Rio 383.3 Rome 380.3 Paris 353.5 Mexico 346.1 Amsterdam 343.2 Buenos Aires 331.8 Zurich 325.8 Berlin 325.3 London 294.1 Mumbai 289.5 San Francisco 283.8 Tokyo 283.8 Hong Kong 281.5 Moscow 277.9 Shanghai 259.2 New York 255.1 Toronto 249.1 Washington 242.0 Montréal 233.9 Los Angeles 220.6 Vancouver 213.1 Chicago 197.1 Next Match : St. Petersburg vs. Havana – exclusively at enroutemag.com in December 2004. Watch for a Civilization Index finale in January 2005. [ ] St. Petersburg vs Havana Rome vs Buenos Aires Washington vs Moscow Mexico vs Tokyo London vs Mumbai Chicago vs Berlin San Francisco vs Shanghai Toronto vs Zurich Hong Kong vs Vancouver Montreal vs Amsterdam New York vs Paris Los Angeles vs Rio de Janeiro STANDINGS Top   |   Home
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