rantlust

Posted by anupcs on April 29th 2007 in Comics, Europe, Language, Travel
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Like most other cultures (with the glaring exception of the French), the Czech are very appreciative if you at least try to speak their language. After a week here in Prague, I have picked up a few useful “phrasebook” words. Czech or čeština belongs to the Western Slavic language family along with Slovak and Polish. The phonetics is not hard to learn and there are hardly any exceptions to the rule (same as German). There is one sound that I find almost impossible to pronounce correctly and that is the one marked by ř (that is r with a diacritical mark above it called haček). The closest sound to this according to the language guides is a rolled “r” followed by the “zh” sound (like the s in pleasure). Even the Czech spend years of their childhood (complete with special training) to get this particular sound right. Why make it so tough?

Apart from that, I have been able to pronounce Czech without much difficulty. Last night, this even got me a free appetizer at a fancy bar (where the wait staff spoke fluent English). For them, it was a pleasant surprise to hear me greet them with a dobrý den (”good day”) when I entered the place and say děkuji (”thank you”) whenever they poured me a Scotch. Their normal customer base of crusty old British blokes don’t bother with such niceties, I was told. While the pronunciation is one thing, learning the grammar is supposed to be quite difficult as words are modified at will with the gender and case. I am not even going to try learning the grammar.

The above two photographs are of the crude Czech language cartoons found in a popular local pub called Pivnice U Pivrnce (in the Jewish Quarter).

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Posted by tafkap on April 28th 2007 in Rants
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I bet not smarter than this crow. Video probably pirated care of youtube.

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Posted by anupcs on April 26th 2007 in Europe, Travel, Women
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I am currently traveling in Prague in the Czech Republic. While it hasn’t replaced Buenos Aires (yet) as my favorite city in the world to travel to, it’s doing a good job at trying. Truly, one of the world’s great cities, Prague or Praha to the Czechs, has been around for a very long time and a lot of the buildings you see here date from more than 1000 years ago. Among the most impressive among them is the Prague Castle whose foundations were first laid in 870 A.D. More on that in a future post. There are numerous other structures including the famous Charles Bridge across the Vltava that command one’s attention in what Time Out calls “a symphony in stone.” The cobblestone streets add to the magnificence of this ancient city.

One thing you notice as soon as you clear customs at the ultra modern Ruzyně airport is that the Czech women are spectacularly beautiful. I was escorted by one of these beauties to my taxi from the taxi counter at the Arrivals hall. Nowhere else have I seen women of such beauty from all walks of life. And all over the place. I wish I could say the same for men too. The roadside cafes here are meant for people watching more than any other city I have been to. The fact that they dress stylishly every day as I observe on the daily Metro rides, adds to the oomph.

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Posted by renéejo on April 20th 2007 in Europe, Sex
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A Dutch (who else?) escort agency has announced a service just for virgins. Computer geekdom is the target market. They will provide a three hour (minimum) service during which the participants will explore each others body, take baths together, massage each other, etc. At the end of the sessions, the virgin geeks will come out knowing how to pleasure a woman. Tall order.

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Posted by tafkap on April 12th 2007 in Journalism, Rants
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Come Monday, the Don Imus Show (not the CBS one, but the circus show featuring “nappy headed hos” that we are now witnessing) will meld into the low frequency drone of our hypermedia induced ADD existence. The Wikipedia entry for Mr. Imus will have replaced its current even tracker icon with a has been icon.

If a remedy for ignorance is more ignorance, I am happy to report that any shortcoming in my knowledge of haute coutre has been plugged by a heretofore lack of scholarship in the life and times of Don Imus. I can’t say I feel too sorry for Don, he surely understands the occupational hazards of being a shock jock and as it turns out, this one may have been a volt too many.
(Read more…)

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Posted by anupcs on April 09th 2007 in Movies
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If you thought Rocky Balboa or Rocky VI was testing our patience for sequels, think again. Die Hard 4, with a 52 year old Bruce Willis is here:

At least he has the sense to play the father of a teenage girl. The girl gets kidnapped by, get this, an Internet-based (whatever the hell that means) terrorist organization and all hell breaks loose with the loose cannon that is John McClane. And speaking of Rocky, our buddy Stallone (age, 60) is not satisfied still. He’s reprising his other action hero, Rambo in John Rambo (what’s with the full name of characters in movie titles?) aka Rambo IV, due next year. I can’t wait.

Did I mention Indiana Jones IV, Shrek III, and Pirates of the Caribbean III? At least with Indy IV, they made a good decision by casting the wonderful Cate Blanchett. I just hope there are no love scenes between her and grandpa Ford.

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Posted by tafkap on April 05th 2007 in Rants
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Looks awfully familiar to me. Courtesy NY Times.

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Posted by john on April 04th 2007 in Commercials, Disasters, Entertainment, India, Sports
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A funny but rather true view of what ails Indian cricket today. Enjoy!

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