NvB: Bored in Brno?: To Fly, You Only Need Wings

To Fly, You Only Need Wings

It's not what you think: I can't tell my airline story yet. Plus, everybody's got one of them. They could be like excuses not to blog. This post is a time machine.

It is the 1990s. Václav Klaus, the survivor (otherwise known as "career politician") of Czech politics has just visited Egypt. Pictures of Klaus on the back of a camel in front of the pyramids adorn the press. The magazine Transition captioned their photo:

CAMELS FROM MOSQUITOES? – Czech Prime Minister Václav Klaus called charges that his wife's appointment to a company board was a possible conflict of interest "making a mountain out of a molehill" – or, in Czech, "making a camel out of a mosquito."

From Transition, 15 March 1995 (vol. 1, no. 3), p. 38.

Tags: czech, language, politics

Posted 09 January 2007 at 18:25.

The Blog

What is "Bored in Brno"? a) the best Czech movie of 2003, b) a blog about Brno (the Czech Republic's second largest city) and my adventures in and observations of south and east Moravia. I usually post about music, arts, culture, and stuff in Brno; or, I talk about whatever; or, I may bore you.

There's a Czech saying about how you are a new person for every language you learn. Here's your chance to experience Czech vicariously and to become your new self, now conveniently available in English translation. (Or at least something reasonably close to English.)

If you have questions, suggestions, like what you see, or you're just plain bored, don't hesitate to leave a comment or e-mail me.

The Blogger

A graduate student in music and anthropology writing a dissertation about music in Moravia, the eastern third of the Czech Republic. At some point, the Czech Republic's "second city" (that would be Brno) captured my attention, and I've since been blogging about events, arts, music, and other stuff—basically whatever interests me in and around the cityscape. I'm not living in Brno now, but I keep up with the cultural pulse from afar as best I can.

More about Brno, Me, Euro-Czech

Comments:

tuckova said . . .

Step 1: Turn mosquito into camel.
Step 2: Fit mosqcamel through eye of needle.
Step 3: You are rich! But that's okay! Enter the kingdom of heaven, you crazy camel driver!

Or something.

6:38 PM, January 09, 2007

Hubert said . . .

What is the Czech phrase for the camel/mosquito quote?

7:02 PM, March 01, 2007

morskyjezek said . . .

Mosquito is komár and camel is velbloud.

The saying is dělat z komára velblouda, literally "to make a camel from a mosquito."

The surname Komárek, I guess, would mean roughly Mr. Mosquito. :-)

8:26 PM, March 02, 2007

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