The Word for January

Editorial by Eva Střížovská

Translation by Eva Vojnova

First of all I would like to thank all the nice people who sent us Christmas and New Year cards and greetings. I hope you have read our wishes on the web site.

Further on I thank to one male and one female reader who sent us a small financial contribution in December and let me thank also to those who are going to send us something during January. We do not have to pay the rent in Klementinum where we were “driven out of” due to the reconstruction of the whole palace, but there are other payments that must be covered so that the magazine may appear on the Internet.

I also owe my great and sincere thanks to Ing. Martina Fialková for her long and often self-sacrificing work for the Czech Dialogue and the International Czech Club. In recent years Martina has been engaged especially in the programs Music without Frontiers (Hudba bez hranic) and in the documentary films Czech Roots (České kořeny). She is also editor-in-chief of the newspaper Listy Prahy 1 (Letters of Prague 1). In short it is all a bit too much for her. Nevertheless we are both trying to find a way of managing other activities together.

I now prepare the Czech Dialogue by myself and soon I am going to send you an opinion – pole as to what you would like to read in it etc. The International Czech Club will not be active for some (at least short) time. Only one member has renewed her registration and paid the club fee of 250,- Kc (=Czech Crowns) for this year. But the event called On the Yacht Round the World (Na plachetnici kolem světa) will take place on January 19th and we look forward to your coming.

Now a few words about what you will be able to read on our web in January. Already now you can find there Martina Fialková´s article about an important cultural event – the Days of Bohuslav Martinů, a text about how Czech Christmas carols drew crowds of people to a square in Zurich, or about how children in Boston celebrated the feast of St. Nicholas. There is also information about a courtly wine shop in the Old Town, about a new CD of Eva Olmerová and the continuation of a series of interviews with Marko Milanovič. All you have to is to click on www.cesky-dialog.net and then on sections Latest news, Czech language abroad, History, Books, Culture, Interview etc.

Right now I am finishing another editorial, Venda Šebrlová What happened and is worth our attention, Jana Volfová has promised a New Year reflection, Miroslava Besserová a column and surely there will be more nice articles. Let me also remind you that I had to take home all my books that had not been sold out from the Klementinum. If any of them might come handy as a present for your friends, I will be pleased to send them with a big reduction of price. They are: Czech Calendar 2016 (only in Czech), Texas II, Klokánie (about Australia) and Všechny moje Ameriky (All My Americas). Call Eva Střížovská

Drawing: Josef Poláček