This is unrelated to the immediate post, but somewhat timely - if only by coincidence. I ran across the phrase "witches' thunder" in a novel in a context that made it seem likely to be a theatrical term for something specific to the props department, rather than an occultish reference.
But my limited online referencing leads nowhere. Any ideas where to look? What it means?
Boo, shriek, thanks, etc.

rollo, while I don't know the answer, I know who knows. Ask Katie at resplendentmango-dot-blogspot, she's a stage manager and d-e-f-i-n-e-t-e-l-y would know.

Take Tatyana's advice, because I have no idea! And good luck.

"Bukovina" reminds me immediately of "Zakarpatie" and Uzhgorod (spent honeymoon there, 2 decades ago). Interestingly (or rather not...), here's how Ukraine views these 2 regions; note - no mention of Hasidic population, historically or future policy-wise. Also, how do you like the word "мадьяризация"?

It's even better in the full phrase "мадьяризации и денационализации"—what a mouthful!

Uzhgorod is a linguistically interesting city. The Hungarian name is Ungvár 'fortress on the Ung [River].' When the town passed from Austria-Hungary to Czechoslovakia after WWI, the town was called Užgorod, "obviously under the influence of the nearby village Užok (from Slavic lužok... at the same time the Hungarian name of the river was changed to Slovak Uh," says Pospelov. When the town was transferred to Ukraine after WWII, the name of the town was kept and the name of the river changed to Uzh to correspond with it (rather than the historically accurate Ug/Uh).

Please use the phrase "Roma" instead of "gypsy" when discussing the travelling people of Romania. Organisations which represent this people have been trying for years to show how traditional names for this ethnicity can be seen as racist.

Also, in the post-1991 orthography, the name of the town is "Targu Mures", with circumflex over the a, or Marosvasarhely if you want to show solidarity with the poorly treated Hungarian population there.

/analcorrection

Using Roma is all well and nice, but when using the term "Gypsy" in general cultural situations, even Gysies (er, Roma) use it in any of a variety of languages. There isn't any politically correct rule on the term. Official organizations prefer to use "Roma" but in describing east European music, most people - Gypsies included - will say "Gypsy music" - "cigány zene." It isn't considered insulting, any more than saying "Semite" instead of "Jew."

And there are a couple of accents in Marosvásárhely as well.

Please stop using W and Q with reference to Turkey.

And please stop doing this. Certainly, you don't want to do that. Taxonomy and solidarity. Stage advice and Jewish gypsies. Where does it end?