Saturday was a wonderful day as we in the Czech Republic watched the polls close and the returns come in on the presidential election. Our adopted country chose a good person, a true leader, over a self-serving corrupt corporatist as their new head of state. That was fabulous, but the …
Since late 2018, I have had the privilege of living in Prague, Czech Republic. This is not a perfect nation, no nation is, but it has an open, democratic society with civil rights. We were able to emigrate to the Czech Republic because it has a clear, and as far …
I grew up in the United States late in the Cold War. I was one of the Americans continually told to beware of the Soviet evil empire and a threat of nuclear war always simmered in the background. But it was all rather a distant notion—a hypothetical that few thought …
Like in many big cities, Prague requires parking permits to park on certain blocks of city streets. Our street is no exception. Most people obey the rules, but when you don’t, this happens. We don’t own a car. We are happy about that.
A year ago the Czech government announced they would be enacting restrictions to control the Covid pandemic. Their swift and decisive actions led to one of the lowest rates of infections and deaths in Europe. We had a very good summer until the government failed to act as swiftly and …
Finally, a decent snowfall in Prague. Took this simple view of the sky with millions of snowflakes.
Another view from my office. Worked late enough to catch a brief snow squall. Had one flash of lightning with a thunder clap.
Andrej Babiš is the Czech Prime Minister and leader of the right-wing ANO party. Last March he was hailed for taking swift decisive action to control the Covid-19 pandemic. He ordered a near total shutdown, required wearing of face masks, stopped tourism both to and from the country, and enforced …
Back in the US, where we’re from, some people get all bent out of shape that some signs and labels are in Spanish. It never bothered us; we actually saw it as kinda cool. Inclusion of other people is nothing to be afraid of. Well, in Europe, you get lots of signs and labels in multiple languages. In the Czech Republic, pretty much every product label is in at least two languages: Czech and Slovak. That makes sense because the Czechs and Slovaks used to be members of the same country–Czechoslovakia. Companies selling products prudently understand that the more accessible their products are, the more sales they can get. So it is not a surprise to see multiple languages on a label. More languages means more people can understand what is being sold.
This is the European Union, so there is a common market for manufacturers. If you are willing, you can sell to over two dozen countries. Of course, it works best if you can describe your product in as many languages as possible. That’s what we see so many packages with four, six, ten or more languages on them. We don’t know why but the packages with the most labels are bags of chips. Potato and corn tortilla chip bags get their ingredient lists translated into 14 or 17 languages. Here’s the current record holder that we’ve seen. A bag of tortilal chips with ingredients in 21 languages.
When we first looked at the apartment we eventually moved into, the real estate person did say its one draw back was that it was near a busy street. It is within sight of Vinohradská ulice, a major east-west artery through Vinohrady neighborhood into Žižkov. “You’ll get some street noise,” …
