Word: ostrava
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...goes by Ostravak Ostravski, this man who tells us he is in his 40s and lives in a socialist-era concrete apartment block in the unemployment-stricken Czech city of Ostrava, once a center of mining mocked by other Czechs as a monument to communism. He confesses to a serious drinking habit, and the urge to share embarrassing details from his more-than-ordinary life via a weblog that has become a national sensation. A coffee mug nearby, he types his entries late at night in a hilariously funny Ostrava dialect that in Czech entertainment culture would typically signal provincialism...
...Five paperback volumes of his musings have become bestsellers, and a sixth hits bookstores next month. An Ostrava-based theater is preparing to dramatize his blunders, and prominent Czech actors twist their tongues in Tuesday night televised readings from Ostravak's blog. And as his popularity surges across the country, Ostravak has rescued his hometown's profile from ridicule. "People are no longer ashamed of being from Ostrava," says Marcela Stehlikova, the editor who, according to the official story, discovered him for her publishing house...
...Strolling Ostrava's wind-swept streets in his footsteps, I could not resist the guessing game. At Jindricha, one of his watering holes, it could be anyone. "It's definitely none of the patrons," insists Iveta Mickova, a plump, no-nonsense waitress, thick gold hoops dangling from her ear lobes. The regulars, she continues, suspect a guy who keeps scribbling away while sitting alone puffing on his pipe. "See that guy with the bag?" she winks towards a slim, bearded fellow approaching from the street...