Czech Update

Czech crooners (dead and alive) on YouTube

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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 »

Spread Bohemica.com with new widget!

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You can now help spread Bohemica.com by sharing this widget on your site or on Facebook.  read more »

People speaking Czech on YouTube 1: 10 Survival Phrases

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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.

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Record car pile up on Czech motorway

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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 »

EU causes Czech pig crisis

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 »

The look of post-communism: New ČSA logo

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 »

Burčák came early this year

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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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The simple pleasures of non-Prague

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 »

All Czechs to receive government-issued email address

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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 »

Czechs are from Mars

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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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Czech university students use sex as a source of income

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.
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Prague has two hotels World Top 10

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 »

Village shops unite under Coop label, shed communist past

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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 »

Nohejbal - A Czech sporting invention

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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.  read more »

Czech identity a Czech tennis stars

The Electric New Paper, Singapore - The Electric New Paper Sports
LIKE Maria Sharapova, Nicole Vaidišová is a product of the Nick Bollettieri Academy in Florida and has developed an American accent.

But she bristles at suggestions she is no longer a true Czech.

Unlike Sharapova, who was born in Russia but hasn't lived there for years, Vaidisova still resides in Prague and says it will always be home.

'I think in every single sense I am Czech. Deep down, I'm Czech. Czech Republic is home for me,' she said.  read more »

Slivovice exhibit in South Korea

The Korea Times : Slivovitz Czech’s Spirit
If there is soju for Koreans and whiskey for Scottish people, there is slivovitz for Czechs. The Embassy of the Czech Republic in Seoul last Monday hosted ``Slivovitz and its Soul,’’ an exhibition on the history of the drink, at the new Czech restaurant, Castle Praha, near Hongik University.

This one of the more bizzare exhibits of Czech culture you can think of. But the interesting question is whether it is accurate. I suspect that most Bohemian Czechs think of slivovice (plum brandy) as a Moravian thing.  read more »

Masaryk's name not for sale

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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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Strčprstskrzkrk.com launches

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I've owned the StrčPrstSkrzKrk.com domain for a year but only now did I find a few minutes to make it live. All it contains is a video of me pronouncing the phrase. But with any luck, I will be adding more Czech tongue-twisters there, as time goes on.  read more »

Czech inventor of the 'drunk tank' dies aged 91

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 »

Bramboráky a houby in Chicago

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 »

Go see the Czech Dream but don't trust it

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 »

Czech is ...

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 »

100 Years of Czech Teaching in Nebraska

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 »

Czech court says no to ex-spouse's snooping

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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 »

The 10 best Czech breweries - And travelling outside Prague

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 »

Prague ham to return to Prague

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.
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Shopping center to become a historic monument

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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 »

The Masopust season: Pork killing and eating time

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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 »

Take the Czech quiz!

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 »

Prague sperm low quality says Brno scholar

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MF DNES
„Spermie Pražanů jsou méně pohyblivé a málo vitální, navíc k mužské neplodnosti přispívají i poškozené hlavičky spermií, které nesou genetickou informaci,“ řekl brněnský genetik Jiří Rubeš. Jeho slova dokládají výsledky z dvouletého výzkumu, kterému se podrobili pražští studenti a městští strážníci.

Due to air pollution, the sperm of Prague's males is not as mobile and often comes with damaged heads. Says a geneticist from Brno after two years  read more »


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