Lee Konstantinou Stuff I write.

Mrs. Watson in Prague

I offer a dialogue from the book angličtina, a book that Ema's mother used to learn English when she was in high school during the communist era of Czechoslovakia:

Mrs. Černá: I hear you are leaving Czechoslovakia, Mrs. Watson.

Mrs. Watson: Yes, I am leaving tomorrow.

Mrs. Černá: And how did you like life in socialist Czechoslovakia?

Mrs. Watson: I think the people here live very well.

Mrs. Černá: Some people say that people in your country live better.

Mrs. Watson: Well, life in our country is different in many ways. Rich people can buy what they like. In your country the shops are always full of people. Some people say it's a bad thing. But I don't think it's bad at all.

Mrs. Černá: I am glad to hear you like our way of life. Will you come to Czechoslovakia again next year?

Mrs. Watson: I don't know. I 'm not one of the rich, you know. But I shall certainly try to come. I have some very good friends here now and I shall be very happy to see them again.

Mrs. Černá: Good-bye, Mrs. Watson. I really hope to see you again next year.

Mrs. Watson: Good-bye.

Fascinating.

Berlin

Was watching VH1 today, and they had a program in which the New Wave band Berlin was reunited for a one-night-only concert. Very amusing, esp. tsince he band had mostly morphed into middle aged, middle class, and kind of overweight folk--nothing edgy or hip about them anymore. They're the group, if you recall, that brought the world that famous version of "Take My Breath Away" which adorns the Top Gun soundtrack, the pop success of which apparently broke the group up. Very '80s.

Nothing else here in the Czech republic. Hot, rainy. Looking forward to getting back to New York on the 20th. I have been working on my novel, though, which is nice. Maybe I'll even finish it someday. Imagine that.

Press has calmed down on Katrina. 9/11 celebrations have come and gone, quietly. No one inside the US seems to be reporting the leaked contigency plan to use nukes against "credible threats" of a WMD terrorist attack. The foreign press is taking note, though. We've demonstrated to them an uncanny ability to accurately predict WMD threats, as demonstrated in Iraq. When the world's superstate says it reserves the right to set off nukes when and where it likes, the world takes notice, though the superstate's media seems not to notice.