Magazine

Livia Klausová, photo: CTK The Czech First Lady, Livia Klausová, launched a book on Tuesday in which she is interviewed about her past as well as her life with her husband, President Václav Klaus. Entitled Smutkem se neobtěžuju, or I Don’t Bother Myself with Being Sad, the book recounts, among other things, how Livia and Václav first met in a hall at Prague’s University of Economics in the early 1960s. “He was surrounded by horde of girls hanging on his every word,” says Ms Klausová, “and so I joined in. Václav then decided to take a tram home, and all the girls wanted to ride with him. My tram went the other way, but he walked me to the tram stop, and that was that.” The couple got married in 1968. The first lady also answered questions touching on speculation about her husband’s repeated infidelity. Ms Klausová said she never thought of getting divorced but that infidelity certainly hurts.

A 33-year-old man from the south Moravian city of Brno is facing five years in jail for having a parcel full of dried coca leaves sent from Peru. The man said he wanted to use the leaves for making tea. He ordered the package over the internet and paid some 100 dollars for it; the shipment was originally to come in two packages but one got confiscated by the police in Peru. When the man realized he had probably breached the law, he went to the police and gave them the parcel – but will still be charged. Ignorance of the law is no excuse, a police officer said. The man, who had never been prosecuted before and is not a drug user, told the police that he read on the internet importing tea leaves was not illegal. Besides, you cannot make cocaine from dried coca leaves. But the parcel with a picture of Machu Picchu on it will cost the man problems although the police hope the court will go easy on him.

If you want to protect animals, one of the options is to buy a jar of dog lard. Many Czech grandmothers would tell you what the best cure is for asthma, bronchitis and other respiratory problems – you need to get dog lard (the fat from the body of a dog) and apply it on your chest. But recently, concerned dog lovers began calling the Czech veterinary authority when they came across an ointment labelled “dog lard”. The animal health authority had to issue a press release in the end noting that although sold as dog lard, the ointment was in fact made of beeswax and herbs. A spokesperson for the veterinarian authority said that not a single dog died in the process of producing the ointment but that the name does evoke this possibility. The producers say they were only trying to catch people’s attention and so they put a picture of a dog on the jar, although the label clearly says what the ingredients are. To appease the many dog lovers among their customers, the company has even begun to support an animal rights foundation.

A drunk man serving a previous ban on driving had an accident while driving his van in the northern town of Liberec. An old Czech saying maintains that drunks are always lucky, which was also the case on this occasion. After swerving off the road, the van hit a fence pole before ending up in a ditch, though the man was unhurt. When he was trying to get out of the cabin, however, he tripped over his dog which was travelling with him, bruised his face and head and had to be taken to hospital by the firemen who come to his rescue. He is facing a year in prison for driving under the influence.

The police in Liberec also had to deal with another unusual case. A driver was fined for a minor offence. He vigorously protested and the next day parked his car in the fast lane of the Liberec- Prague highway, before turning on his hazard lights. When a patrol car arrived, the man explained he was protesting against the fine. It took the policemen some ten minutes before they persuaded the aggrieved driver to leave.

A run-away goat fooled firemen and the police in the town of Veselí nad Moravou, in southern Moravia, on Tuesday. The goat escaped from a house on the outskirts of the town, and the owner called the municipal police for assistance. The policemen were unable to locate the fugitive, and called the fire brigade. Together, they located the goat, and were approaching it with ropes and lassos, trying to corner it. When the goat saw what was about to happen, it found a hole in the surrounding fence, and once again escaped – this time, towards a nearby village of Kozojídky, and has not been spotted since. Now that would not be anything unusual if it weren’t for the name – Kozojídky would translate into English as “Little Goat Eaters”. Historians agree that the name of the community, first recorded in the Middle Ages, did really reflect the eating habits of its early inhabitants. It’s not clear whether the goat survived its visit to Goat Eaters, but the police said they were getting ready to catch the animal – this time, with volleyball nets.