Author: Elda Hamaker

Life Glowing

Life Glowing

Posted by | Jun 13, 2013 | |

I’ve been thinking. People that say that love makes the world go round are full of shit. Love is just a veil that covers death, which truly makes the world go round. As usual I’m feeding Hugo drinks just to hear his stories and world-view, which always have a jaundiced sensibility that reinforce this thought of mine. Hugo got a call the other day from his father’s latest wife asking him if he’d heard from Remy. Hugo told her that he hadn’t talked to him in years. His father was a writer of some note in the 70’s, supposedly...

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Bearing arms in Karlstejn

Bearing arms in Karlstejn

Posted by | Jun 6, 2013 | |

When Token Czech Friend, Tour Guide and Interpreter Jana told her mother that she was taking monthly trips around the country with a random American backpacker, her mother expressed concerns for Jana’s safety. “After all,” she said, “he could be mafia.” Understandably, my first purchase in Karlštejn causes Jana a bit of stress: You can find them all throughout Souvenir Row, your first stop in town: China-made toy Uzis, 9mms, M16s, AK47s, all one-hundred percent realistic in appearance and weight, all one-hundred percent capable of propelling a yellow rubber bead with enough force to seriously annoy the average housecat....

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Kampa Park – After the Rains

Kampa Park – After the Rains

Posted by | May 30, 2013 | |

Back during the floods of August 2002, Nils Jebens, Norwegian-born proprietor of three of Prague’s top restaurants watched as his work of the past decade was, quite literally, washed away. {loadposition content_adsensecontent} “I was standing right over there,” he tells me, gesturing from our table across the Vltava to the Old Town gate of the Charles Bridge. “By noon we knew that Kampa Park was ruined.” With its covered dining porch right on the riverbank, this legendary Malá Strana favorite among celebrities was the first to go under. But the real shock came six hours later, when Jebens stood...

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Help make a moody cow happy again!

Help make a moody cow happy again!

Posted by | Apr 28, 2013 | |

Unless you’re living in India, it’s pretty tough to be a cow these days. Living in a factory farm with all the terror that that implies must be pretty frightful thing, quite enough to put one in a really bad mood should you happen to be a cow, or a compassionate human for that matter. For the millions cows in the EU, anything can happen to you, and there have been no specific regulations created to protect them from cruelty or harm, nothing like the welfare rules that have already been put into place for other farm creatures like...

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Edmund Irvin Watts – March 9, 1940

Edmund Irvin Watts – March 9, 1940

Posted by | Feb 19, 2013 | |

In Prague it was nearly impossible to meet anyone who had never heard about Edmund; the bald man with the long white beard. {loadposition content_adsensecontent} Edmund was born in North Carolina in a small town called Chapel Hill. He was one of five children. He got a degree in psychology and theology. He was married twice and had a child whom he never had the chance to meet, though he made efforts to find her. He used to be a marine, a baker, a florist, a hippie, and a prisoner, amongst other things. Edmund came to Prague in 1998....

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