Flipping off the world
A joke making the rounds goes like this: A Czech, an Austrian, a Japanese, a Jew and an Avatar meet ... and the Czech presidential elections begin. The Avatar, for those not in the know, is drama Prof. Vladimír Franz, who has blue tattoos over 90% of his body. His bodywork won him his 15 minutes of fame in the Daily Mail and Wall Street Journal. They certainly didn't print his picture because of his ideas on democracy, debt or opera, although many Czechs claim it's his intellect that attracts them. A Blesk presidential poll puts Franz in third place, with 14%, behind Miloš Zeman and Jan Fischer (21% each). Vladimír Dlouhý, another candidate, says that only Franz and Karel Janeček (who isn't running) can fill a meeting hall. If Czechs elected Franz, it would be a protest against the political establishment. It would also be a clear way to tell the world that Czechs don't give a damn what anyone thinks about them.
Glossary of difficult words
to flip someone off - to give someone the finger; to stick up one's middle finger, with the meaning of "fuck you";An Austrian, a Japanese, a Jew - Karel Schwarzenberg, Tomio Okamura, Jan Fischer;
to be in the know - to be aware of something known only to a few people;
bodywork - the act or process of repairing the bodies of motor vehicles (or human bodies, in a figurative sense);
15 minutes of fame - a short period of media publicity or celebrity; the phrase was coined by Andy Warhol, who said that everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.