"I have two birthdays. The first is the usual kind, being expelled, screamin' and hollerin', from a very comfortable and a warm place. We've all had those even if we don't really remember. The record shows that mine took place on June 1st 1951 in Prague, in a little central European country then called Czechoslovakia.

The second birthday was a more understated event that took place exactly 18 years and 3 days later and I remember it clearly. I left the vile womb of Communist banality and flew to friendly, hip, cosmopolitan London, England, in search of, well, something better, more exciting and fulfilling. Breaking all ties and with only a slim chance of ever going back, I had a rare opportunity to start with a blank slate—a new person.

A four decade long journey through four different countries followed, and along with modest successes, there were assorted screw-ups, cultural gaffes, lapses of reason, embarassing faux pas and other oddball happenings. Some were committed by me, some by those I met along the way. Except for a change of most names and a date or two, these stories are all true.

They are the Bouncing Czech Tales."

Karel Kriz
Mission Viejo, California

...coming soon

• Scottish Culture and Other Natural Disasters
• Das Hammer und Das Bierkeller
  
• Svenska Fest Djuren (Swedish Party Animals)
  
• Natural and Un-Natural Stage Disaster Compendium
  
• Sleeping with Women's Liberation Army
  
• An Open Letter to the Mayor of Los Angeles:
  How to Solve that Pesky Traffic Problem ("zees vil neveerr flai")
  
• The Infernal Jeep
  
• His Grace's Equestrian Mishap
  
• The Virgin Voyage to Catalina Island
  
• Auld Reekie Tales