The banner was made by Pavel Gan
(left) two days earlier after a Sunday banquet meal of pork, dumplings, sauerkraut and beer (and Metaxa, to dispel any notion of Czech chauvinism being tolerated in our midst) at the pleasant house of
another - albeit former - exile "globetrottel"
in Říčany near Prague; it was
smuggled into the Czech Crown Inn
in Lipnice by him or his son MichiGan undetected, and unfurled without any prior warning to the shocking dismay of all present. Way to go Paul!
You may want to notice further evidences of the uncompromising stance of the organizers when it comes to Czech chauvinism and purism: People's Exhibit No.1, David Schwenk (seated in the middle under the banner wearing a deceiving smile of amusement) who is a natural born American having taken for a wife a Czech woman whose birth's naturalness has not been probed into. (His work in progress, a book about Jaroslav Hašek, coupled with his other sins, should lead to his likeness being obliterated from the original of this picture by the guardians of things Czech.) People's Exhibit No.2, Zenny K. Sadlon (standing right, holding the other end of
the banner and immortalized here when caught in the act of raising his fist in defiance of the assasins of Hašek's and Švejk's character) who in turn has gained some measure of naturalness in his life by having taken for a wife a natural born American woman. Last, but not least, People's Exhibit No.3, Pavel Gan residing in Germany (of all places!) who took a genuine Ukrainian for a wife. To find out why Pavel is not even mentioned in the press release,
come to the next INTERNATIONAL "haškiad" at Lipnice
next year. In the meantime, try to find the answer to that question in his fascinating NEW book Osudy humoristy Jaroslava Haška v říši carů a komisařů i doma v Čechách
, i.e. The Fateful Adventures of Jaroslav Hašek in the Empire of the Czars and Commissars And Even at Home in the Czechlands.
