For you people out there who think a good time is as important as a job well done, that getting there is half the fun, that all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, we offer the reigning Russian wisdom on the subject: Bez kaifa, net laifa.


The idiom is a bit mixed, but we wholeheartedly endorse the message, and so we'll try to explain it. Kaif is a Russian distortion of the Arabic keif, which Russky Yazyk Publishers' Short Dictionary of Foreign Words defines as "rest (usually after lunch), pleasant idleness."


But kaif means so much more to a certain generation, which just happens to include many of our colleagues.


Originally, kaif meant drugs, and by extension, the narcotic effect they produced. But the meanings have branched out. Now you have, according to Rozhansky's inimitable pamphlet on hippy slang, the following:


Kaif as alcoholic beverages, as in Sgonyai v magazin za kaifom: "Go to the store and get some booze."


Kaif as a pleasant experience, as in U menya s etoi takoi kaif nachalsya: "I got such a high from that grass."


Kaif as an expression of approval or positive assessment, as in Vchera ya khodil na takoi klassny kontsert. Kaif!, "Yesterday I saw this great concert. It was excellent."


Kaif as a statement of degree of pleasure, as in Mne ne v kaif napisat' pro Yeltsina, "I don't feel like writing about Yeltsin."


A substitute for this usage is po kaifu, as in Seichas parochku butilok vina bylo by po kaifu, "Right now a couple of bottles of wine would be great."


We tried to investigate further, but were rebuked by some colleagues, who accused us of being kaifolomy, "kaif-busters," with our incessant queries.


Somehow, this expression sounded to us like it belonged in California, where people are always talking about "mellow stokes" and things like that.


If you haven't noticed any of your companions saying these things, hey, that's groovy too. Maybe they stay away from you when they're pod kaifom, under the influence of whatever their kaif may be.


The narcotic meaning, incidentally, should not be overestimated. You have to remember that these expressions entered Russian in the heady days of the 1960s and 1970s, when (even in Russia) people had different attitudes about mind-altering substances.


Of our associates who say kaif today, we don't know a single drug-user. These days, people try to lovit' kaif, "look for their kaif," in other places.


We won't ask where, not wanting to be kaifolomy, so we'll just say "There is no life without kaif" and stay out of it.