a peek inside the fishbowl

Travel Massive is an organization that brings together travel writers with industry people at free events all around the world. I’ve been aware of them for some time and there have been Travel Massive networking type events in Ottawa over the past while, but for one reason or another I haven’t been able to attend.

A few weeks ago I heard that the next Travel Massive event was to take place at the Czech Embassy with representatives from the Czech tourism board and fellow writers. There was no way I was going to miss this one. You see, my parents are Czech (although I was born here), I speak Czech, and I have been to Prague.

My goal for this evening was to connect with likeminded people and learn more about some of the lesser-known destinations in the Czech Republic.

And I’ll tell ya: (a) there’s a lot to discover and (b) there is so much beauty.

Prague itself is a real gem. Many people I speak to would love to visit but, for some reason, if they can only visit ONE place in Europe, cities like Paris and London tend to win out. If you’re a fan of arts and culture or a history buff, Prague is the city for you. Take Charles University in Prague, for example. It was the first university in central Europe, founded in 1348. And there’s Charles Bridge, one of Prague’s most famous landmarks. Construction began on the bridge in the mid-1300s! In terms of Canadian history, keep it mind that it wasn’t until 250 years later that Samuel de Champlain founded Quebec City. :)

I got to know Prague a bit while visiting family there. The first time I was there was in 1990 or 91. The Berlin wall had come down and the country had just recently elected its first democratic government. It was a very exciting time to visit as it was a country very much in transition. Department stores were just starting to accept credit cards. I saw the Rolling Stones and the Cure. I remember being in the main square – and there was a sign posted in the front window of a hamburger joint (why do I think it was a Harvey’s?) that read: WE SELL CANADIAN HAMBURGERS. I never did figure out what that meant. Maybe there was bacon involved?

The people were friendly everywhere I went. It was something that stayed with me and something I remembered when I returned later when my grandmother was in the hospital. It came back to me again at that Travel Massive event at the embassy. There is so much to learn about Czech culture, and the people are so proud to share it. I think they’re extra pleased when they meet Canadians (actually, I know this for a fact). Canada and it’s glorious wilderness (not to mention many parallels involving beer and hockey culture) occupies a soft spot in Czech hearts.

In fact, there’s a very famous folk song about Niagara Falls that every single person in the Czech Republic knows. (I am not even kidding.)

Na brehu Niagary, stojí tulák starý,
na svou první lásku vzpomíná.
Jak tam stáli spolu, dívali se dolu,
až jim pulnoc spadla do klína.

And my attempt at a translation:

On the banks of Niagara stands an old wanderer,
he remembers his first love.
How they stood together, looking down,
until midnight fell into their laps.

Anyway, this was all swirling around my head as I chatted (in English and my underused Czech) to the embassy staff and to representatives of the tourism board and munched on traditional Czech foods that tasted of home. I also enjoyed some Czech beer, of course.

If I ever go over to the Czech Republic again – and it WILL happen sooner or later! – I will bring my family and go beyond big cities to explore the countryside, the smaller castles, and the parks. (Of which there are many! I had no idea.) I am particularly smitten with Bohemian Switzerland and Bohemian Middle Mountains. And the spas! My grandmother swore by their restorative powers. I’d love to be able to experience a bit of what she did.

The girls are proud of their Czech heritage and I know they’d get so much out of a trip over there. I can also show them why it feels like home away from home. Time to start doing some research…

Take a deep breath and watch this lovely time-lapse animation: “Field of View’. https://t.co/k5pphDeelp pic.twitter.com/ODlCZhRZoX

— Slate (@Slate) April 9, 2016

• The Introvert’s Guide To Painless Personal Branding, fastcompany.com
• 14 Old-Fashioned Words for Writers, mentalfloss.com
• The Weird, Wonderful Job of Being a Tour Guide in the Age of Google, theatlantic.com
• A Week Behind The Great Firewall Of China, fastcompany.com
• 9-year-old reporter breaks crime news, posts videos, fires back at critics, washingtonpost.com
• Watch: this artistic interpretation of animal courtship

I have been sick with a cold for most of the week and I have been dragging my sorry butt around the house in the most pathetic way. At least one member of the family feels sorry for me. She has been at my side through THICK AND THIN*:

* That is, when she’s not busy napping herself.

Sleeping well is nearly impossible with a raspy cough and itchy throat. I made my way down to the couch at 4 a.m. this morning and am still feeling like quite the zombie.

But, newspaper deadlines wait for no man. Or woman. I am just finishing up the next issue of our community newspaper. One of the things I had to type out today, and it was a first for me, was an official correction notice. I will get into that in a moment but first I wanted to talk about spelling mistakes and typos. They’re not great, and of course we do our best to avoid them, but I can’t help but cringe when I see people online slamming a media source for a typo or misspelling. Some readers fly into a rage and spew their anger on Facebook: DON’T THESE PEOPLE KNOW HOW TO SPELL! DON’T THEY KNOW ANYTHING!?

I beg you to consider the human element here. The writer doesn’t choose to intentionally misspell words and fan the flames of reader ire. Mistakes happen because we are human.

When I see people publicly complaining about a typo I want them to consider whether they’ve ever made a mistake at work and whether would they like to be flogged on the Internet about it, in all caps, for all to read:

Status: Angry face.
JIM IN ACCOUNTING FORGOT TO ADD COLUMN C IN HIS SPREADSHEET! (!!)

A lot of what we’re reading – especially online – is breaking news. Journalists are rushing to get breaking news submitted online before the competition. They’re often overworked, rushing to get their assignments in before deadline. Should the media outlets employ extra people to proofread and check things over calmly? Yes. Does it happen? Not always. This is the world we live in now.

Next degree of error: factual errors. We made a factual error in the most recent last issue of KT. I was embarrassed when a reader contacted me about it (actually, several readers) and the cringe factor has yet to fade. The cover story was about public consultations in regards to Rosemount Library. Rosemount is the oldest library in Ottawa and, like many libraries in Canada and the US, was funded by money from the Carnegie Foundation… money that came via Andrew Carnegie, an American business tycoon at the turn of the century and not, as we put it, Dale Carnegie. Sigh.

The writer messed up and I didn’t catch it before it went to print. Call it a badly-timed brain fart, because I DO know the difference between Andrew and Dale. Not only is my mistake published, on paper, forever in the annals of the Canadian Newspaper Publishing Industry, but it’s on the front page, read by 18,000 people. Andrew Carnegie is flipping over in his grave in disbelief and I’ve stunted the minds of readers who, during future games of Trivial Pursuit, will surely lose because they read the wrong information in their local community newspaper.

I am being facetious, obviously, but I do take these things seriously.

Some larger magazines I have worked with employ fact checkers. In terms of the process, this means that the writers submit their story to the editor. Corrections are made and typos are fixed. THEN, the article is handed over to a different person who calls everyone quoted in that story and ask him or her about every aspect that is being written about. They pour over the article with a fine tooth comb: Did you say this? Are these numbers correct? Is that name spelled Jackie or Jacquie? It’s a good system, but one we can’t employ at our little newspaper. We are only human, and do what we can with the resources that are allocated to us. The readers will have to forgive mistakes that may arise.