Final Word from Friday, September 17, 2010
Some of our readers haven't stepped on a train since before they made their first million, but going among the plebs now and again is good for the mind, body and spirit. A train ride across the country is more relaxing than a car trip, with the attendant traffic jams, potholes and distracting billboards. Trains also give a lovely view of the luscious Bohemian and Moravian countryside, marred only by the occasional Communist-era pre-fab building, dilapidated Communist-era train station and sprawling capitalist-era solar park. Ah yes, the solar parks, all lined up like paupers waiting for the pope. They make the dozing train traveler wish for a good hailstorm. How else to be rid of this blight, short of dynamite and matches? Of course to prevent them from being built back, the hail would have to be declared an uninsurable Act of God. But if the ice came down in enough force, it surely would be a merciful act of God.[Czech Republic plant photovoltaic pre-fabricated panelák electricity Smetana]
Glossary of difficult words
From Bohemia's Woods and Fields - one of the parts of Smetana's "My Motherland"; some of the solar parks are of course also in Moravia;
pleb - an ordinary person, esp, one from the lower social classes;
attendant - occurring with or as a result of;
luscious - richly appealing to the senses or mind; richly verdant (of countryside, green with grass or other rich vegetation);
to mar - to impair or spoil the appearance of something;
dilapidated - (of a building) in a state of disrepair;
sprawling - spread over a large area in a disorganized or unattractive way;
pauper - a very poor person;
to doze - to sleep lightly;
hail - pellets of frozen rain;
blight - a thing that spoils or damages something.