Magazine

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Who’s that at the beach? Senior Civic Democrat officials aim to give voters a laugh ahead of the early general elections. The girls from the “tenner” –the old Czechoslovak ten crown note have been good friends for over half a century – and what’s that zebra doing on a Liberec street? Find out more in Magazine with Daniela Lazarová.

Photo: CTK
It is without doubt the photo of the week. Four senior Civic Democrat officials, among them the former prime minister Mirek Topolánek and the former interior minister Ivan Langer in bathing trunks on the Croatian sea coast. Now Mr. Topolánek’s muscular physique is not a novelty – his nude photos from Silvio Berlusconi’s villa made front pages around the world recently but this time the former prime minister is fully aware the camera lens are turned on him and his party colleagues for a series of billboards intended to give Czech holidaymakers a laugh ahead of the October general elections. A series of billboards – one hundred in all - are to be put up along a Croat motorway frequented by Czech holidaymakers in which drivers will gradually see the party bosses stripping down to their trunks. The photos have elicited a mixed response – from jokes at the former prime minister’s expense to open outrage from people who point out that at a time of economic crisis and floods the photos are in extremely bad taste. Whether or not they will get the Civic Democrats extra votes remains to be seen – but one thing you have to give the party – it is certainly baring all for voters, in one respect at least.


Marta and Margita are both sixty and have been friends since first grade. At the age of ten in 1959 they were chosen to pose for a portrait that would be used on the Czechoslovak ten-crown note –their single claim to fame and not something they were very eager to do at the time. Margita whose hair was short was bundled up in a shawl – representing the “old world” before the communist take-over, Marta who had long braids was given the red scarf of the communist youth union and represented the “bright future”. Throughout the summer the two girls posed for the artist while their friends played outside – and Marta says that their only bit of fun was fidgeting which made the artist promptly supply them with sweets in return for a promise to keep still. To their parents’ immense pride they appeared on the ten crown banknote in 1961 and remained in circulation until 1988 – just a year before the fall of communism. They say it was fun being able to go and buy ice-cream in return for their picture, but soon they had changed beyond recognition and few people realized they were the girls from the “tenner”. Although they later married and one of them moved away, they are close friends to this day and they still get letters from collectors who send them an old ten crown note and ask them to sign it. And of course each has one of her own – in the family album – for old times’ sake.


Czech bartender Ondřej Slapnička won second place at this year’s Golden Cup Cocktail Competition in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. And he was up against the best - the two-day competition, organized by the Bartenders’ Association of Taiwan, attracted close to a thousand winners and runners up in national bartending competitions held around the globe. Ondřej wowed the jury not so much with his delicious Caribbean cocktail but with the flair and dexterity with which he mixed it – he was the only bartender there who employed his feet as well as is hands. He collected his silver cup from the hands of IBA president Derrick Lee and is already planning to make it right to the top the next chance he gets.


Photo: CTK
Street dance fans in the Czech Republic are having the time of their lives - a week long street dance event has attracted some of the best street dancers in the world to Jedovnice na Blanensku in the east of the country where they have been teaching kids a variety of styles from hip-hop to break dance. The event is one of the biggest of its kind in Europe, offering some 300 workshops led by the best street dancers from thirty states –including a dancer who worked with Michael Jackson and choreographers associated with Justin Timberlake, Missy Eliot or Will Smith.


The zoo in Děčín has been having serious problems with its wolf breeding programme these past two years. The wolf Ed whom they had on loan from the Plzeň Zoo appeared absolutely disinterested in mating with any of the she-wolves at Děčín Zoo. He was a big eater and appeared completely healthy but his interest in breeding was nil. After two years of waiting in vain for cubs the vets at the zoo decided to tranquilize him a give him a proper medical check-up to find out what was wrong. The solution soon presented itself – Ed was in fact Edwina and the zoo would have waited for cubs in vain forever. When contacted about the mistake the Plzeň Zoo apologized profusely saying they had not wanted to tranquilize the wolf without good medical reason and had naturally assumed that the biggest and strongest member of the pack was Ed. The real Ed is now on his way to Děčín ready to make up for lost time.


A drawing of a zebra has appeared on a Liberec street without prior warning and is attracting a lot of attention. The animal was painted overnight outside the local library and its employees say they have a fair idea what it is all in aid of. Dozens of library-goers, including children, cross the road at that point every day to get to the library and there have long been calls for a zebra crossing which would make it safer. So far the traffic police have failed to respond and clearly someone is hoping that a real zebra – which stops drivers in their tracks – will help the local authorities get the message. The library staff is amused and the library director has said she will take up the point with the mayor. In the meantime the zebra is doing a good job of slowing down traffic.