Category Archives: Blogs' Archive

Of course, I would prefer to be 28 again, but today I got a 5 year metro pass for only 120 crowns, and that’s essentially for life because in five years I’ll be 70 and then it’s free.  As a friend pointed out to me just after I got the pass, they never really check us any more anyway, which is usually true but I like having the guarantee.

It’s not just the money.  It’s the elimination of any hassle.  I guess that’s a first world problem, the minor irritation of the pass running out every 3 months, usually on a day when you need to travel and don’t have time to renew it.  On the other hand, it can be renewed over the phone and I’ve just never learned how to do it, leaving that chore to Helena.  See, first world problem.

I thought I’d have more to say about that, but I don’t.
Another thing I did today, just a couple of minutes ago, was to change poetry sites.  Of course, if I were really determined, I would be posting my stuff at several different sites, but I don’t want to become a spammer and I know I find it irritating if I see someone posting the same thing several times.  Anyway, I went back to Rattle’s Anything Goes poetry group from Rattle’s Poetry Workshop, because I didn’t feel I was getting enough response, certainly not enough constructive response, for the workshop.
I seldom got any replies when I was posting on R.A.G. before, but at least I’ll be being ignored by a larger number of people

Bernie is a stand-up guy, and campaigns mostly by explaining his own policies.  He doesn’t waste time trash talking his opponents, as so many other politicians do.  However, his supporters are not so constrained, nor should we be.  It is not only our constitutional right, but our civic duty to point out the flaws of all opposition candidates.  Of course, Bernie’s opponents are busy pointing out his flaws, constantly, but just screaming ‘Socialist!’ at everything is starting to wear thin.  Besides, 70% of the American people want Medicare for All, socialism or not.
Anyway, here is a little site created by (I assume) a Bernie supporter.  It is called Biden 2020, but except for the title and a smiling picture of Old Joe on the front page, it is most definitely not a pro-Biden site.
It shows a lot of his worst positions (pro-segregation until the mid-70s), some of his dumber quotes, and a montage of groping photos and videos.  Now, personally, I think we should fight him on the issues (like his treatment of Anita Hill), and the shot of the biker chick sitting on his lap doesn’t really belong in the montage, because she was clearly right into it and that is the whole difference, but overall it was funny.
And very informative.  All about how he voted for the Iraq War, and the death penalty, and how much he hates marijuana, and how he voted against Gay Marriage, and against abortion rights.  And, of course, his son Hunter Biden’s crooked relationship with a Ukrainian oil company, and the lengths they went to to cover it up.
So, a great site.  I’d like to see something like this for ALL candidates.

We first moved into this neighborhood in October of 2002, just after the flood, and our criteria for choosing this location still hold true.  We wanted a quiet neighborhood to raise children in, with easy access to public transportation and not too far from the center.  It’s still all that, but it has changed.
Construction has pretty much been non-stop over the last 15 years and there are at least 3 modern business parks, and several apartment complexes, which have been built in that time within a 5 or 10 minute walk of our front door.  It’s generally a positive thing.  Certainly the value of our flat has gone up.  Like, multiplied by about 4.
But I just saw drawings of the newest planned apartment complex, and I’m not at all sure I’m happy about it.  The building itself doesn’t look too horrible, standard 21st century white cubist, like stacked sugar cubes. It’s the statue next to it that’s giving me pause.
It’s a David Černy thing.  He’s the sculptor who did the babies crawling up Žižkov Tower, and the pink tank, and the purple upraised middle finger floating on the Vltava, and the rotating head of Kafka, and a few other things.  He’s the most famous Czech contemporary sculptor by far, and most people like his work a lot more than I do.  I’ve never seen what the big deal was with those stupid babies, but whenever someone visits me in Prague, that’s one thing they want to see, because they’ve heard about it.
Anyway, the statue is big and silver, a bit like the Kafka head, but it’s a full human figure, masculine, the height of the building.  I guess it’s supposed to look like he’s holding up the building but from the picture I saw it looks a bit more like he’s leaning on the building, like some drunk giant who’s stopped for a bit of outdoor urination, which is in fact a longstanding Czech tradition so maybe that’s appropriate.
It’s going to happen whether I approve of it or not, so we’ll see.  Maybe I’ll grow to like it eventually.

I hate it when people on TV make really stupid decisions.  I’m binge watching (really, once you’ve got Netflix, is there any other kind of watching?  One show follows another so fast, there’s not even an advertisement between, and you’re watching the next episode, the denouement of the cliff-hanger ending, and you’re into a new episode before you know it.  It’s like somebody constantly topping up your drink)  a show called Salvation, which starts with an interesting concept.  Bright college student, computer geek and astronomy nerd, discovers an asteroid is going to hit the Earth in about 6 months time.  So, the pressure builds each episode as they’re a little bit closer.
We’re down to 80 days now and panic has set in, a terrorist group is sort of holding the world hostage as they work on solutions to destroy or divert the asteroid, bright science boy is kind of torn between aforesaid terrorist group and the billionaire genius who’s hired him (Basically, Elon Musk, but crazier) (terrorists are working on a solar sail, billionaire is working on a rail gun), and there are two factions vying for control of the government.
It’s that last part that I’d like to address.  So, the current president, who is supposed to be good and the audience is meant to like her, even though she looks far too much like Dianne Feinstein to be sympathetic, is battling with the vice-president, who was president for a while, while everybody thought DiFi lady was dead, and it’s come down to a Supreme Court decision, but then a suicide bomber tries to take out the swing vote (who’s going to uphold the status quo) and he’s in the hospital in an induced coma, and they’re all saying they have to bring him out of the coma long enough to cast the deciding vote, even though it might kill him and hordes of crazed citizens have surrounded the hospital.
So, I’m wondering, if she needs a safe vote, why doesn’t she just make an emergency appointment, somebody she knows is loyal, because that would be a hell of a lot easier, and you don’t have to unnecessarily risk the life of an old man, and they could easily cover it PR wise, you know, swift response to terrorism and all that.
Just a stupid decision, really, so there would be a dramatic hospital scene, a tearful wife, a dramatic speech, and then a helicopter blowing up on the roof.
Also, the bit where they shut down the internet.  You could see from the get go that was going to backfire.

We took another bike trip today.  This time it was to the zoo, because Helena had some free tickets from work and we hadn’t been for awhile.  It was the two of us and Isabel.  Sam was working.  Sam is always working.  At least, I hope he is.  He tells us he is.
The street that goes up to the entrance, between the zoo and Troja Palace, was blocked for construction or something, and we get separated and lost from there as Isabel and I didn’t see that Helena had cut through the parking lot, which was the correct way to go.  So we bicycled the length of the zoo, thinking maybe there was another entrance, but there is not.
Eventually we got it all together.  The first animals we saw were the sea lions, and we were right on time for a show, they did a few tricks, like dogs, and we got a bit of an informational talk, and then we saw the penguins, who were just standing around not doing much, and the gavrials, there was one with 5 turtles riding on his back, like he was a bus, then the flamingoes, who were in fine form, just walking around on the beach and making all sorts of noise, flamingoes are party birds, it’s a Miami disco, then some very small monkeys, then another kind of monkey, and then the gorillas , and some more monkeys, and then we took the chair lift up to the top path and we went and saw the elephants, and the giraffes, and there were some zebras in with the giraffes, and some small antelope type of animal.  There are about a million types of antelope, apparently.
Then we stopped for lunch, I had fried cheese and french fries, the star of Czech Cuisine.
It was a lovely day and one of the nicest things about it was that it was kind of cool and not too crowded.  I hate going to the zoo on a hot day in the middle of summer.  It’s crowded, and sweaty, and tense and uncomfortable.  But, on an overcast Sunday, the crowds weren’t too large at all, and it seemed that a lot more animals than usual were up and about, being entertaining.