Thursday 3 November 2011

Still Obsessing

I was telling a friend who lives in the country about seeing the map pins that Jobbik were selling on the anniversary of the 1956 uprising, and she in turn told me that in the village next to hers there is a restaurant where every Thursday is Big Hungary Day.

If you go for dinner there on Big Hungary Day, they serve you a schnitzel on a wooden plate that is carved in the shape of the old map of Hungary, before the Treaty of Trianon sliced chunks off it. The schnitzel you get comes in two pieces - one is in the shape of the current Hungary and the other, extra, encircling piece is in the shape of what was cut off - of which the major part was Transylvania.

When my friend asked if she could buy one of the wooden plates to take home with her, the restaurant owner explained that they didn't have many, as they were handmade and sent from Transylvania. He didn't tell her whether the manufacturers were Hungarian Romanians or Romanian Romanians. I suppose he didn't really need to.

4 comments:

  1. Courtesy of Peter Norvig (http://www.norvig.com/quotations.html)

    When I face an issue of great import that cleaves both constituents and colleagues, I always take the same approach. I engage in deep deliberation and quiet contemplation. I wait to the last available minute and then I always vote with the losers. Because, my friend, the winners never remember and the losers never forget.
    - Sen. Everett Dirksen

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  2. Yes, no need to ask, really. Shopping, even for bread, tends to split along partisan lines here. Plus, there are many many excellent Hungarian craftsmen here who'd need the work. Great quote that, George - absolutely spot on. And Bob, totally. I think most neutral historians agree that too much land was taken from Hungary and that it was a move to smash up the old Empire as much as possible rather than a just act in the name of punishment and self-determination. Having said that, the old Empire was filled (in most of the parts taken) with majorities of non-Hungarians, who had resisted all attempts at Magyarisation and who understandable wanted their own governments, which had
    previously been denied them. Transylvania is kinda the special case as, unlike with the Slavs, there is no real evidence that the Romanians were here before the Hungarians. Would be great to talk to you more, George - have you got a blog? But I'll stop now or I'll get carried away.... :-)

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  3. Bob, I mean. (And George, though).

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  4. Yes, George, absolutely great quote.
    Bob is a Roberts radio, I'm afraid, Gadjo, so you can only listen to him - or at least you can talk to him, but you may not get a response (and, whatever you do, never mention digital).

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