A worker in the State Department invited a visiting diplomat from Russia to be the guest of her and her husband during a winter weekend. After dinner, the three of them went to the window to witness an incoming winter storm. Her husband said, “It’s a pending snow storm.”

“No,’’ said Rudolf, the Russian guest. “It is only rain.”

“No, it’s snow,” the husband repeated.

The Russian insisted, “It’s rain.”

The wife interrupted quickly to avoid a confrontation. She said to her irate husband, “Rudolf, the Red, knows rain dear.”