Crossword and astronomical yearbook

Yesterday I sat in the garden reading the Russian newspaper (with the help of a dictionary, of course) a friend had given me. As I opened the page with the crossword (incidentally, the word "crossword" has made it into the Russian language as a loanword), I had a very intense flashback:

Maksim is sitting on the balcony on a hot summer's day, reading the newspaper. He opens the page with the crossword and picks up a yellow pencil to do it. The pencil is hard and sometimes tears the paper, but there is no other possibility - if he did the crossword in ink, the paper would absorb too much ink and the letters would become blotted.
Just as Maksim is pondering a rather difficult question, absent-mindedly playing with the pencil, Vadim peeks over his shoulder and teases his brother-in-law saying: "Why try, you're too stupid to do it anyway." Maksim playfully hits his hand backwards, slapping Vadim's chest and saying the famous Russian three-letter word :-)

Another flashback came to me later that day, as I was reading an astronomical yearbook.
Maksim is lying on a checkered blanket (red and blue) by one of the lakes near Chelyabinsk, reading an astronomical yearbook or a similar publication Lyoshka has lent him.
Lyoshka is standing next to him, wearing black swimming trunks cut like boxer shorts because he has just been swimming in the lake, and says something to Maksim I can't "hear". Maksim replies: "Go away, Eisenstein, you're dripping water all over me."
Lyoshka picks up a cup from the picnic basket, fills it with water and threatens to pour it over Maksim, and the flashback fades out...