Czech Update

Czech crooners (dead and alive) on YouTube

Dominik Lukeš — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 13:37:28 +0100

Karel Hála, a star of Czech big band pop music since the 1950s just died as reported by Lidové Noviny. Here's a cliop of him and another stallwart of Czech pop Karel Gott. read more »

Masaryk's name not for sale

Dominik Lukeš — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 07:45:12 +0100

Here's an interesting example of how history can be important to the present.

To have a glass of Masaryk? In ČR not possible - Czechnews - Aktuálně.cz Czechs are so proud of their first democratic president Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk that they will not let anyone use his surname as a trade mark.
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People speaking Czech on YouTube 1: 10 Survival Phrases

Dominik Lukeš — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 22:01:29 +0100

Sometime ago I started a theme of Czech music on YouTube but never followed up on it. Here's an extension of it: People speaking Czech on YouTube. There are lots of people speaking Czech on YouYube, sometimes the clips are funny, sometimes interesting and informative, and sometimes obscene. The first example is a run down of top 10 phrases from travellinguist.

Record car pile up on Czech motorway

Dominik Lukeš — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 10:57:03 +0000

The main Czech motorway (dálnice) witnessed a record car pile up when 116 cars ran into each other (reminiscent of Blues Brothers) with no fatalities. This was due to unseasonably late snow storm.

30 people injured in 116-car collision in Czech_English_Xinhua read more »

Czech inventor of the 'drunk tank' dies aged 91

Dominik Lukeš — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 22:07:26 +0000

Záchytka is a wonderful Czech word that stands for the institution for the collection of drunken (and possibly disorderly) individual wondering city streets occasionally referred to in English as 'drunk tank' or ' read more »

EU causes Czech pig crisis

Dominik Lukeš — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 16:18:24 +0100

I don't know what's more interesting about the story: that there is a crisis in pork production in the CR or that there is a publication called PigProgress.net? read more »

Bramboráky a houby in Chicago

Dominik Lukeš — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 14:28:42 +0100

What could be more fitting to celebrate Czech traditions than Houby Day on Čermák Road. This is the season of mushroom picking in the Czech Republic and many of the mushrooms (houby) will end up in pancakes (bramboráky), even though even more will be made into a meal with scrambled eggs (smaženice). read more »

The look of post-communism: New ČSA logo

Dominik Lukeš — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 17:17:25 +0100

It appears the Czech Airlines are changing their look to look less Eastern European, lower quality and post-communist. See them below side by side and judge for yourself if you can tell the new from the old: read more »

Go see the Czech Dream but don't trust it

Dominik Lukeš — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 07:30:50 +0100

Czech Dream (Český sen) is a semi-documentary film about a hoax advertising campaign for a hypermarket of the same name that fooled thousands of people and tried to expose the 'lies' in advertising. read more »

Burčák came early this year

Dominik Lukeš — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 00:02:13 +0100

Burčák the young wine (stum) popular in the Czech lands in the early autumn came earlier this year appearing in early August. Burčák sales in Prague kiosks around September and October is one of the joys of the Czech 'babí léto' and reminds Bohemians to remember how good it is to have Moravians part of the nation.
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Czech is ...

Dominik Lukeš — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 20:37:01 +0100

If you want to know what Czech and other languages are like, read some of the humorous entries on the Essentialist Explanations page. They may not all be accurate but they are mostly funny. read more »

The simple pleasures of non-Prague

Dominik Lukeš — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 23:29:00 +0100

A visit to Třeboň, a small picturesque town (malebné městečko) in Southern Bohemia elicited justified outbursts of lyricism from a Seattle columnists. And he's right. The individual personality of small Czech towns is something to be experienced through a leisurely journey rather than a hectic 'been there, done that' trip. read more »

100 Years of Czech Teaching in Nebraska

Dominik Lukeš — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 12:20:47 +0100

Here's a nice bit of news. Apparently people were learning Czech as long ago as 1907.

U.S. University of Nebraska celebrates 100 years of Czech lessons - Czech republic read more »

All Czechs to receive government-issued email address

Dominik Lukeš — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 13:05:08 +0100

According to a new draft law, lower-court summons should be delivered via email. To that end all Czech citizens would receive a government-issued email address. This is to avoid problems with people not picking up their summons from the post office and thus delaying the proceedings. It will be possible to opt-out but then summons not collected withing 10 days will be considered delivered. read more »

Czech court says no to ex-spouse's snooping

Dominik Lukeš — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 15:58:39 +0100

Just a little curiosity but also an example of privacy becoming a greater concern than it has traditionally been in the Czech culture.

Czech man gets suspended sentence for reading his ex's SMS - Europe read more »

Czechs are from Mars

Dominik Lukeš — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 11:50:09 +0100

Well, it seems that the world has more than just the death of Dinosaurs to be thankful to a meteorite for. It is possible, it seems, that the Czech basin or "Česká kotlina" as it is known, is also a result of a giant rock smashing into the Earth. We owe the nice pancake shape of the country to that catastrophic event of 100 million years ago.
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The 10 best Czech breweries - And travelling outside Prague

Dominik Lukeš — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 19:02:39 +0100

The 10 best Czech breweries -Life & Style - Travel - Destinations - Europe - TimesOnline Prague's status as a destination for beer lovers is undisputed: the Czech Republic is home to the original Pilsner, the original Budweiser and boasts the world's highest beer consumption, 160 litres per person each year. In Prague, great pubs are found on every corner, and it is not uncommon to see people drinking one or more of the country's outstanding lagers with breakfast. Ounce for ounce, beer is cheaper than water here, and often appears to be consumed more widely. However, if you really want to sample Czech brewing, you need to leave the capital. This is far easier and less expensive than in many neighbouring countries, with excellent public transportation to nearly every Czech brewpub and regional brewery within a few hours.

Two wonderful pieces of advice. How to get to some great lesser known beers (remember you each pub only has one or at most two brands of beer) and how to travel outside of Prague to get more enjoyment out of Czech lands. read more »

Czech university students use sex as a source of income

Dominik Lukeš — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 11:16:56 +0000

Sex jako výnosnější brigáda - www.lidovky.cz PRAHA 17. února 2007 | 10:59 Až čtvrtina studentek vysokých škol si podle odhadů minimálně jednou během studia vydělá komerčním sexem a točením či focením porna.

Prague ham to return to Prague

Dominik Lukeš — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 11:12:11 +0000

Pražská šunka se vrací - iDNES.cz Kdo neví, jak chutná tradiční Pražská šunka od kosti, ať si koupí letenku. Ochutnat ji může v italském Terstu, v Berlíně, ve Spojených státech nebo i v Austrálii. V Česku zatím ne.

Prague has two hotels World Top 10

Dominik Lukeš — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 09:43:57 +0000

MF DNES Praha - Pražský hotel Riverside je osmý nejluxusnější na celém světě. Na osmé místo se dostal v prestižní anketě portálu Tripadvisor, který každý rok oceňuje nejlepší hotely z celého světa.

Two hotels in Prague made it to the top 10 in a survey of hotel visitors from around the world conducted by Tripadvisor. Riverside is 8th (4th in Europe) and Le Palais 10th. It should be of note that neither of these hotels has a Czech or even Czech sounding name and that one read more »

Shopping center to become a historic monument

Dominik Lukeš — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 11:26:09 +0000

Stane se Kotva památkou? - www.lidovky.cz Obchodní dům Kotva na náměstí Republiky bude možná následovat Máj na seznam kulturních památek.

Two Prague department stores (1970s shopping malls) Kotva a Máj (which is now owned by TESCO) are about to become listed as historic buildings. They are certainly part of history and the public consciousness. Supposedly, they are also quite important achievements Czech architectural design of the period. Judge for yourself: read more »

Village shops unite under Coop label, shed communist past

Dominik Lukeš — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 09:11:25 +0000

Vesnické obchody se spojí proti Teskům a Lidlům - iDNES.cz České obchody Jednota, Konzum a Coop, kterých je 3074 po celé zemi, se chtějí jako protiváha k nadnárodním řetězcům zviditelnit pod jedním názvem. S největší pravděpodobností to bude Coop.

Two names that were known to Czech shoppers for decades may soon disappear. Jednota (Unity) and Konzum (Consuming) were two state-run (or at least state controlled) cooperatives covering thousands of shops and restaurants all over Czechoslovakia. read more »

The Masopust season: Pork killing and eating time

Dominik Lukeš — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 10:30:39 +0000

MF DNES Praha - Pravé zabijačkové hody, ale hlavně karnevalové masky a spousta zábavy. Tak vypadal čtvrtý ročník Karlínského masopustu, který odstartoval v sobotu v jednu hodinu po poledni.

The time of Masopust, or the pre-lent carnival, (literally, the meat fast, a translation of the carni-val) has come upon us which means a lot of pig slaughtering festivities (zabijačky [lit. killing times]). Of course, the atheist Czechs will go on eating meat all the way through Lent. The Czech Wikipedia lists some of the foods you might take away (výslužka) from a killing time: read more »

Nohejbal - A Czech sporting invention

Dominik Lukeš — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 09:57:44 +0000

MF DNES Příští sobotu se ve sportovní hale v objektu 1. základní školy ve Staré Boleslavi uskuteční první ročník nohejbalového turnaje trojic o putovní pohár starosty města – Ondřeje Přenosila.

Take the Czech quiz!

Dominik Lukeš — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 23:53:51 +0000

Tiscali Europa It's not all beer and the Vltava you know... Ten countries in Central Europe and the Mediterranean joined the European Union in 2004 - how well do you know them? Can you tell a Becherovka from a Jan Huss? Or a Škoda from a Schroeder? Try your luck with our great photo quizzes... but make a mistake and you get sent back to the beginning!

Tiscali Europe has provided this fun quiz on what is important to know about the Czech Republic. They hit many of the major points (although they read more »