Final Word from Thursday, June 19, 2008
Any magazine has a longer-than-desired lead time, and writers often find themselves praying that nothing changes between the time the copy is turned in and the magazine hits the newsstands. There's a sort of dead zone over which no one has any control. PM Mirek Topolánek no doubt wishes he could retract a statement he made in today's issue of Ekonom. He revealed to the magazine earlier this week that Slovak PM Robert Fico had bragged to him about the favorable euro/crown parity rate before the rate was made public. Oops. A huge scandal has erupted in Slovakia over just this issue. Only a handful of people were supposed to know about the revaluation, and that makes them all suspects in the alleged passing of inside information to speculators. And it just so happens that Topolánek was vacationing in Sardinia with a pack of friends and lobbyists at the time of the revaluation. [Czech Republic prime minister adoption rate Italy]
Glossary of difficult words
usual suspects - a phrase made popular by the movie "Casablanca" and later by the movie "The Usual Suspects";
lead time - the time between the submission of a text and the publication of the text;
Ekonom - Topolánek gave his interview to Ekonom on Monday, while the scandal in Slovakia erupted on Tuesday;
copy - text, story, matter to be printed;
to retract - to withdraw or take back something said.