Word: budapesters
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Hungarians love chocolate - indeed, it is their favorite sweet. They eat it in pastries, cakes, cookies, and even as the stuffing of a pancake called palacsinta. But last week Budapest was abuzz with rumors of a scandal that turned many a Communist sweet tooth sour. At lavish parties run for high government officials by the boss of Hungary's state-controlled national catering service, the pièce de résistance was a chocolate-covered airline hostess...
...rumors had it, Caterer-cum-confectioner Lajos Onodi operated a roulette parlor in the Budapest suburb of GÖd. The gambling den, frequented by foreign diplomats as well as Hungarian officials, not only had a rigged roulette wheel but plenty of scantily clad girls-many of them recruited from Malev, the Hungarian state airline-who were raffled off as the evening progressed. On at least one occasion, a Malev hostess coated in chocolate was first prize, whereupon the Communist big shot who won her retired for a high-calory dessert...
...Justice Minister Ferenc Nezval). Onodi and ten cronies will go on trial later this month for having "caused damage to the economy amounting to 400,000 forints ($17,500)." No one explained just who or what had been damaged, but it seemed clear that, as one Budapest daily dejectedly commented, "the time for urimuri (gentleman's fun) is over...
...Eastern Europe's drift toward capitalism continues, the Communists may be willing some day to let Western businessmen invest in the East. On the upper levels of the Hungarian government, there was talk last year of inviting Conrad Hilton in to build and manage a hotel in Budapest. Though that idea fell through, at least four of the satellite countries are negotiating with Pepsi-Cola. The Communists want to buy Pepsi's franchises, but it is still possible that U.S. companies might buy into bottling plants behind the Iron Curtain...
...this time smacked of the absurd: Matheovicz was planning to restore the Habsburg dynasty, with himself as Premier. There was a more likely explanation, however. Matheovicz has long been a follower of Hungary's Josef Cardinal Mindszenty, who still lives in self-confinement at the U.S. legation in Budapest, despite long-standing rumors that the regime would let him go free. Last week's sentences show that Kadar, despite his easing of religious restrictions, still cannot afford the resurgence of Catholic political influence...