It might do to say some more about Prague. Last night I went to a bar that kept two pumas up on the roof, and where the waitress came out onto the patio and started smoking a joint with the customers. The pumas, as I understand it, are brought down to impress customers on busy nights. It's totally legal to parade pumas through a bar in Prague, or perhaps more pointedly, it is not illegal. In Ben's words, there are no laws here. There is a culture of permissiveness that is totally fantastical to a visiting American, in other words, one who grew up in a country that embraced pseudofascism back in the 1980's.
Two nights ago I observed a tiny old woman berate a prostrate begging homeless man. When the homeless man did not answer her, she grabbed him by his collar and forcefully tried to wrench him to his feet, which caused him to roar an incomprehensible syllable (as I do not speak Czech) and return to his original position. Then she began smacking him on the shoulders with a rolled up newspaper, which caused him to roar again, and then finally the woman gave up and continued walking down the street.
One of the largest tourist industries in Prague is the sex trade. There are endless strip clubs (called cabarets, or, by the men trying to persuade you to enter them, titty bars) and brothels, where the prostitutes stand on the curb and attempt to physically pull you inside if you show the slightest hint of desire (or if you happen to get too close). As interesting as whores are to me, I have no stomach for this sort of thing, and so I doubt that I will find the impetus to tour a brothel while I am in the Czech Republic.
A major tourist item that is sold in Prague is absinthe. However, they do not sell real absinthe in Prague, in that it has no anise or herbs that I can detect (and perhaps not even wormwood), but the product they do sell is infused with massive quantities of the psychoactive drug thujone, enough that it would be illegal in any country that is not the Czech Republic (which has no laws). As a result, the intoxication one feels from this bum absinthe is very interesting. It makes one feel surprisingly alert and aware, and it is possible to understand why artists were drawn to the beverage in the 19th and 20th centuries.
I have reached 25,000 words at the time of this blog posting. If I write every day from this point on, I will reach the goal of 40,000.
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