Mayday Coming....So Celebrate

I just flipped my large desk calendar over to May. I threw out April. I do that on a Friday when the following Monday is a new month. I like to always be ready for the next month, ya know? (Hate to walk in on Monday and still see the old month.)

FRIDAY SWING—Saturday, April 29 is the alternative date for Join Hands Day. Anyone planning anything? Blog all about your plans in the Comments below. Sunday, April 30 Jindra Kotek and Alena Rapacova are in concert at Hinsdale Community House. It's their first appearance in the U.S. Sponsored by Moravian Cultural Society, call Jean Mensik at 630-493-0067.


I pasted up on the walls of the home office a 35mm "photo trail" of the Czech Republic President's visit. Helen and Simona are checking out the Photo Gallery at trail's end.


Have a great weekend bloggers. Show April the door and welcome May. Go out and celebrate. As the man says in the movie Rooster Cogburn:
Katherine Hepburn: "You are shooting your own food. Whiskey spirits has made you silly. Why must men be silly?!"
John Wayne: "Well I'm celebratin' sister."
Katherine: "celebrating WHAT?!"
John: "Bein' alive, sister, bein' alive!"

A President Came Calling

Yesterday evening the CSA Home Office played host to a cocktail reception for Vaclav Klaus, President of the Czech Republic. He is in town visiting the new Czech Consul in Chicago and he is speaking today at the Chicago Hilton. Last night was an invitation-only event for about 100 people (about all the CSA atrium can hold) and went off well. Gerri Romanelli, Jean Hruby of Sokol, and April Reed did the work of preparing all the tables and bunting and made everything look special. Way to go ladies! Deborah Zeman and John Pritasil handled the meet-and-greet during the evening and displayed their usual style, tact, and class. You guys rocked! Everyone was smiling and enjoying the moment. (And there was some friendly jostling to get those "kodak-moments.") It's not often a Czech president comes to your office! Believe me people were buzzing. It was a truly thrilling experience.

Mr. Klaus was relaxed and cordial and took time to shake everybody's hand (even me....twice!) He toured the Czechoslovak Heritage Museum and received gifts from CSA, Czech American Congress, and Sokol. He sat in CSAs conference room and answered questions from the press and I was able to chat with him about the future economic growth of the Czech Republic. Stop the presses! He said that the growth of the Czech economy was a big issue today and that he felt it showed all signs of continuing at a healthy six percent clip. Wow! Also, he admitted that reports of it growing to as much as eight percent were doubtful.

Before leaving for dinner he stopped and raised a glass of beer in toast to the lively and fun spirit present that evening. Here are a few photos exclusive to Insider.


Camera were rolling as Mr. Klaus made some comments to the local press.


The CSA atrium was filled to capacity and song and laughter filled the air.


Deborah and Vaclav look over the flags before entering to a packed house.

Music Makers

Some of you blogged and a few of you emailed guesses to the City in The Song game we played last week. Here are the artists (in the same order as their songs appeared): Frank Sinatra, Christopher Cross, Tony Bennett, Bob Seeger, The Doors, Steeley Dan, The Clash, Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong, The Monkees, The Pretenders, and of course, Elvis Presley. Did you get them right? If you did w–t–g (way to go). :) Thanks for playing the game.

Fun Czech Phrase for today is: Prosím vás, kde je divadlo?

Are you JC or LOL? Oh NVM...

Are you internet savvy? In other words, do you know 'the code'. Internet chatting is all about abbreviation speak. Know what I mean? Well if you've ever chatted online you know exactly what I mean. You know for instance that LOL means laughing out loud and JC means just chillin'. NVM is nevermind and THX means thanks. There are a few other nuances as well....such as typing in ALL CAPS indicates that you are shouting. (Mostly a no-no.) And placing various faces after sentences means to convey feelings. Like :) or maybe ;) or my favorite ‡)

Here are some other abbreviations:
np — no problem
rotfl — rolling on the floor laughing
brb — be right back
jk — just kidding
ttyl — talk to you later
o — oh
k — ok
L8r — later
omg — oh my gosh
Atm — at the moment

Now that you're armed with abbreviates, go get 'em. Chat like a champ today!

Maintenance note: if you have experienced a slow down or delay in getting on the blog and making comments, the server has been doing some maintenance the last couple of days. Apologies for any inconveniences.

ttyl

Chicago Czech Consul Grand Opening Gala Pics

Borek Lizec (at right), Deputy Head of the Consulate General, laughing with one the Moravian performers.


This Moravian singer takes a brief time out to be photographed for Insider.


Cyril Svoboda (left) and Dan Wenzler, CSA Exec. Sec. and Treasurer, take a break from their chat to be photographed.


Moravian musician tunes up on her accordion in the early evening sun, a little while before the party began.


Tim Burke (left), CSA Journal Editor, gets on the other side of the camera with Marek Skolil. Dan Wenzler took this shot.

Czech Consul Opening: Evening Of Fun in the City

Twilight falls across Boul Mich as the last rays of the setting sun fall on buildings to the west. Millennium Park is on the left of the photo.


Deborah Zeman is pointing out Czech street names to Mr. Skolil on a unique Chicago map that was made in all Czech language. Deborah presented the map to the Czech Consul on behalf of CSA.


Mr. Skolil and Deborah share a laugh as he asks her, "where's the CSA office located on here?"


An overhead view of the crowd at the Czech Consul grand opening.


Petr Kola (center), Ambassador of the Czech Republic to the United States, talks with a group of people including George Drost (at left).

"Opening" Night Party Pics

Evening Bash Was A Smash

Music, singing, laughter....if you attended the bash last night in the posh digs of the newly christened Czech Consul offices on Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago, then you know what a hit it was. Everyone else will just have to look at the photos and be envious. The party was a nice way to introduce the Consulate to the local Czech community. Hundreds turned out in their finery to mingle and rub elbows. Present were officials from the Czech Republic, representatives from Chicago and state government, the wonderful Consul staff, and Czech community leaders.


In photo, from left: Marek Skolil, Consul General, Deborah Zeman, CSA President (in kroj), and the featured guest of the evening, Hon. Cyril Svoboda, Minister of Foreigh Affairs of the Czech Republic.


Moravian performers sang and played tunes all evening to the delight of the guests.


Mr. Svoboda offered up a toast to the opening of the Consul. Everybody raised a glass to its success!


Flash bulbs were popping and video cameras rolling all evening.


Dan Wenzler, CSA Executive Secretary/Treasurer and Paul Nemecek, CSAGSI President grin for Insider.

City In The Song

I was chatting with someone about songs with city names mentioned in them. We started trying to top one another. This led to a guessing contest, then a list. Below are some song lyrics with city names. Can you name the artist(s) who sang them? (Those artists you associate the songs with the most.) Should be fairly obvious. Have fun.

"My kind of town, Chicago is, my kind of town, Chicago is, my kind of, razz-ma-tazz, and it has, all—that—jazz...." "When you get caught between the moon and New York City, I know it’s crazy, but it’s true, if you get caught between the moon and New York City, the best that you can do is fall in love...." "I left my heart in San–Fran–cisco...." "Get out of Denver baby, go-go, get out of Denver baby go...." "LA Woman Sunday afternoon, drive through your suburbs, give me your blues, give me your blues, give me your blu-blu-blues, give me your blues, ohhhh-yaaa...." "Hey nineteen, that’s ‘Retha Franklin, she don’t remember, the queen of soul, sweet things from Boston so young and willing, she thinks I’m crazy but I’m just growing old...." "London calling to the underworld...." "April in Paris, chestnuts in blossom, holiday table under the tree...." "Take the last train to Clarkesville and I’ll meet you at the station...." "From Seneca to Cuyahoga Falls, hey-ho where’d you go Ohio?...." "Bright-lights-city gonna set my soul, gonna set my soul on fire, there’s a thousand pretty women waiting out there, they’re all full of devil-may-care (and) I’m just a devil with love to spare (so) Viva Las Vegas, Viva Las Vegas, Viva- Viva- Las Vegas!!!"

Post your guesses in the Comments below.

Good To Know Ya

Dolores Chiappetta steps outside the home office doors to wave hello this morning. Dolores is the Assistant to the Treasurer/ Mortgages at CSA.


The world's largest digital camera seen in the windows of the building across from CSA. I noticed this optical illusion when I checked my shot on the computer.



Can you find CSA's street address 122 (W. 22nd Street)?






If you are cruising down Cermak Road, here's what our sign looks like. Stop in and say hi.

Cherry Picking

MAN those last two blogs were long. (Why didn't someone tell me to shut up.) PLEASE NOTE—The CSA Home Office will be closed on Friday, April 14. It will repoen for business on Monday. A couple of you emailed me last night about the video. Some of the comments included "Wow" and "Very cool". Thanks for scoping it out and replying. (It's on ndnation.com as well.) ON MAY 9th Insider hits the half-year mark. Woo-hoo! We'll have to do something special. Think "Blog Party". I'm open to ideas so fire away. Click on the word 'Comments' below and leave your inspirations or feel free to email me at tburke@csafraternallife.org.

For those Insiderati with inquiring minds: Moonbats describes left-leaning views. Wingnuts right-leaning. A Bye-Line is a farewell at the end, such as this one I saw somewhere:

"life is just a bowl of cherries." ....BTW....it really is!

Michele At Czech Fest

Here's a photo of Miss National CSA attending the Czech Fest in St. Louis last weekend. It's planned to appear with Michele's article for the May Journal but in black-and-white. May is a long way off and Michele went to the trouble of shooting photos and emailing them, so I thought I'd run the color version now. Hey, that's what Insider is for!

GAMERS—this isn't exactly a gaming site however youtube.com is a place to check out all sorts of videos people have made and uploaded. Note: if you visit today, one of the featured clips is "tameshiwari in czech republic," a cool martial arts demonstration. You can rate whether you like them or not. There's tons of stuff, from the sporting and music worlds to the weird and humorous. You sign up for free with your email. It's painless. Yes, I'm on there with my trb4320 name in case you go looking me up. I've only selected one video so far and it's recap of ND's 2005 season (okay, you caught me, I'm a fan) set to Hoobastank's Crawling in the Dark. I highly recommend it if you like to rock out.

CZECH FUN PHRASE—Ukoncete vystup a nástup, dvere se zavírají! (Not all the marks always come through when copying to the blog. It's a bit mysterious. Sorry about that.)

POPPER—how many lodges reference a U.S. President in their lodge name? How many reference inventors? Go ahead and start guessing.

NEWBIE?—relax. Just surf around and read stuff. Check out the links. If you want to express your opinion go ahead. Just click on the 'Comments' button and you'll get a new screen to type into. When done hit the 'Other' button or 'Anonymous' button and then hit 'Publish'.

A Photo Tells A Thousand Words; I Added A Few Hundred More Anyway

Insider is promoting an article called "in a little corner of the world, Cozy Czech Library Brimming With Books From The 'Old Country'" in the just-released April issue of the Journal. The top photo was taken in the Library here at CSA. If you want to come in and find lots of info about genealogy and more, make sure to call first (800-543-3272) and plan to stop in on Tuesdays or Fridays when Paul Nemecek is on duty.

The next photo shows Marek Skolil, on left, the Consul General of the Czech Republic, and Borek Lizec, the Deputy Head of the Consul paying a visit a few weeks ago. SCOOP—there is a invitation-only dedication ceremony for the official opening of the Consulate General offices in downtown Chicago on April 20. You can be sure Insider will be there to take photos. Also, there is a bonus SCOOP—Vaclav Klaus, President of the Czech Republic is visiting Chicago and on April 27 will be delivering a lecture, open to the public, at the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations luncheon held at the Hilton Chicago, 720 South Michigan Avenue. Admission is $60. Call the Czech Consulate in Chicago for information at 312-861-1037.

Visitors come in all the time to "czech" out the Czechoslovak Heritage Museum and Library at CSA in Oak Brook, Illinois. Admission is free. Here a student, Maura, pauses her museum tour to be photographed for our Faces special feature going on all throughout the year. Stop by and get your face "immortalized" for our photo time capsule to appear in a series of photo layouts in the Journal beginning later this year.

Have a real happy Tuesday.

Service(d)

I noticed a poll today regarding internet users. The Prague Post reports 54 percent of Czech Republic citizens ages 18 and older use it. The U.S. is probably higher. I wonder how many CSA members have the internet? If you've used the internet for any length of time I'm sure you've run into "the incredible strangeness of cyberspace" in the form of, well, just about everything. From service (run the laugh track) to "the thing that went sproiiinnnggg" in the night.

Do you have a funny/weird story to share about cyberspace? Let us all know. Here's one from me....I was once thinking of signing-up for earthlink back in its infancy, about a decade ago. The rep I was talking with said he had to put me on hold for a couple of seconds to check something. But after a moment I realized he hadn't hit the hold button as I could hear his conversation. He started talking about what he did on the weekend with a coworker and even told the guy he was just killing some time to make me think that they were a very busy company. They riffed for about five minutes on how they could waste the customers time at will. Then he came back with this all-business type of voice. I told him I overheard everything and when he played innocent I repeated some of his phrasings. Instead of fessing, he denied LOUDLY then hung-up! Nice.

Git!

FRIDAY SWING—Czech Festival, April 8, St. Louis. 3rd CSA Youth Sleepover, coming up May 5-6. Details in April Journal.

Friday equals happy, so go outside today and enjoy yourself. Let the fresh air do its thing. Don't just sit around reading blogs and typing on the computer. (Pause to let the paradox work in.) After all, technology frees us up for more leisure time. Right?

Now gitottahere!

April Journal

That's Jena Aukland on the front cover of the April Journal. She was the first visitor to take part in Faces. Since she walked through the doors at the Czechoslovak Heritage Museum located at CSA in Oak Brook, Illinois, hundreds have had their photos taken as part of this ongoing special feature. "Faces" is a photo time-capsule of everybody who visits the museum during 2006. I will put together a montage of faces in the magazine starting later this year and going into 2007. (It'll take several issues to publish all of the faces.) Stop by and take part. You don't have to be a CSA member. On the back cover you'll notice the deadline for entering the Miss National CSA Contest is June 9. The Get-Together is August 4-6 held at the Lisle, Illinois, Hilton (a near-west suburb about 45 minutes from Chicago's downtown loop and ten minutes from the CSA Home Office.)

Looking for something on the internet? Try the "Waybackmachine" at www.archive.org.

Czech Fun Phrase—Lije jako z konve. (Hint: this might describe April showers.)

s-c-i f-i

QUIZZERS (GAMERS)—go to blogthings.com and try out the many quick quizzes. The car quiz will generate the car you want to buy. This is a photo of the car that I generated. Try it and see what you get.

Meanwhile....the Gort reference brought out the sci-fi fiend in some of you. I know, I know, it's a VERY popular genre. So what's your favorite sci-fi show or movie?

Water rising

These are images from the Slovak Republic (top) and the Czech Republic (above) on news.bbc.co.uk this afternoon. Also, the Prague Post has reports on the flooding situation. Click on their Live News Feed.

The Little Library That Could

Coming in the April issue of the Journal (due out in a few days), is a story about the Library connected to the Czechoslovak Heritage Museum at the Home Office. Here's a photo of the library. You can visit on Tuesdays or Fridays but call first 800-543-3272 and ask for Paul Nemecek. The library is small in size but packed with english- and czech-language books.