emperor and the golem

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043411/

 

recommended to me as a great movie . . . 8.1 on IMDB

 

Golem is Yiddish . .. cf. Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golem

 

Yesterday afternoon, I was called away from my mundane tasks to attend an “Induction” for new employees, including 2 new colleagues, but I am not one of, tho’ I have apparently been on probation for 90 days as a new hire, even tho’ I have been with the company for 5 years, because I transferred from US to CZ . . . we were served Kolaches (Plum (prune) and Pear)), Strudel, anti-pastas, beer, wine, & juice . . . so from 3:30 till 5 pm I sat and drank on the company dime . . . fair enough . . .

 

I missed my weekly yoga class, but because I had a 5pm phone conf, anyway . . .got home after 6:30 . . . had a glass of champers with Mrs while we tried to visually straighten our new framed picture (by drinking, not by actually moving screws in the wall, if you see what I mean) . . . then we went to Lenka Hlava (Clear Head) vegetarian restaurant  . . . but never mind all that . . . 

 

the caterer for the Induction soiree’ was Golem Catering . . .  the waiter looked like a Hollywood – no, like a Czech film – stereotype of an evil Marquis, with his goatee curled in different strands – and – this is the point, at long last – I tho’t a golem was kind of an evil, murderous, vampire kinda thingy, which would be a very odd selection for the name of a caterer, I think you will agree, but all the Czechs agreed it just means servant . . .

 

according to Wikipedia, they are correct . . . it is even the unacknowledged model for Capek’s RUR . . . but . . . I had it in my head that Golum, from Lord of the Rings, was even modeled after the Golem concept, that the Golem was THAT kind of a being  . . . but I guess I was just ill-informed . . .  

Veverka Ciperka

Went to lunch with my office crowd, over to the Slunucnice (sunflower) . . .

My compadres perversely enjoy watching me parse over the menu picking out words I know . . .

Kruti . . .kureci . . .losos . . . pecene. . . .brambori . . . ryze . . . smazene . . . grilada . . .

But they were all smirking and laughing openly last Friday . . . as puzzled over a new entry in the menu . . .

“Veverka Ciperka!”

Means squirrel . . .. Ciperka means cute or perky . . . it’s like a generic name now, from a cartoon character, I think . . .

We all had to have it . . . .when it came, it was chicken sprinkled with chopped nuts . . . I think . . . would have been a very large squirrel . . . but the rabbits here are big as jackrabbits, too . . .

Golf Punk

One hardly knows whether to laugh or cry . . . cf, the golf magazine . . . I mean, it is not even particularly czech to entertwingle golf and nubile young women, but golf punk?

What is up with that?

The celebration of golfers unable to hit more than 180m from the tee?

Svoboda

freedom - drzost

freedom - lehkost (mluvit anglicky ap.)

freedom - plynulost (mluvit anglicky ap.)

freedom - svobodné užívání čeho

freedom - svoboda

freedom - volnost

freedom - osvobození

freedom - svobodné užívání (čeho)

freedom - nezávislost

freedom - nenucenost

freedom - členství

freedom - neomezenost

freedom - nevázanost

freedom - otevřenost

freedom - přímost

freedom - upřímnost

freedom - volný přístup

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Swoboda

In the 1969 World Series, Swoboda, not known for his fielding, made a spectacular rally-snuffing catch of a ball hit by the Baltimore Orioles' Brooks Robinson in the 9th inning of Game Four. The Mets won the game in the 10th inning, and subsequently, the World Series. A photograph of Swoboda, stretched almost horizontally, just inches off the ground, became an iconic image for Mets fans. The Right Field entrance gate of Citi Field, the current ballpark of the Mets, features a metal silhouette of a baseball player making a diving catch similar to the one Swoboda made during the 1969 World Series.

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/football/giants/galleries/how_unknowns_became_ny_legends/how_unknowns_became_ny_legends.html

So, picture this . . .

Ron Swoboda’s ancestor at Ellis Island . . . staring incomprehensibly at the Immigration Official asking his name -- as blankly as I do at a Czech waiter asking me if I’m ready to order the food – but he spreads his arms theatrically and shouts “Swoboda” -- “Freedom” -- since he now will be in America . . . and that becomes his name . . . .

I just think its funny . . .

Rented Apartment Art

So . . .

When you rent a furnished apartment, it does not come with bare walls . . . there is art of a sort . . .

ours includes this picture of - the don't get me wrong: FABULOUS -- Josephine Baker . . . altho' . . . is there anybody younger than me that even knows who she was? There was a film recently, but I don't think from that film one would infer the lionization she enjoyed. . . not the global scale of it . . .

any way . . .

this is a hopelessly poor framed cheesy picture, hung over where my computer now sits . . . I see it every day . . . she was and will always be fabulous and iconographic, so seriously beautiful that other women do not mind, if you know what I mean, even naked . . .