Prague Limerick

There was a sad writer from Prague
who drank too much cheap hootch and grog --
bohemian to the core,
though Bohemia was no more,
he liked to say, "What's past is hedgehog"

Prague Limerick

There was a clockmaker of Prague,
master of the spring, gear, and cog.
To thwart a reprise,
they poked out his eyes,
that mean Old Town Council of Prague.

Note: There is some disagreement as to whether this actually happened, but it makes an intriguing story. i.e. The town government blinding a craftsman with red-hot pokers to prevent him from building a more beautiful clock for another town. [It reminds me of a similar story (or, possibly, old wives’ tale) about Shah Jahan ordering the Taj Mahal craftsmen’s hands cut off so that they could never eclipse that structure’s beauty.] The rest of the Prague clockmaker’s story is that he returned to his creation and, despite his blindness, smashed up the mechanisms so badly that they couldn’t be repaired.

DAILY PHOTO: St. Salvator Church, Prague

Taken in Prague in the summer of 2002.

Czech Limerick

There was a writer from the Czech Republic
who only got a few of his works published.
But for bleak, bureaucratic crimes
he was way ahead of his times —
who knew we’d soon see people wantonly punished?