cimrman!!!

so, one of my very favorite things in prague was this little museum at the bottom of the petrin tower, which i happened across by accident. it's dedicated to the life and inventions of the most famous czech, jara cmrman (german equivalent is "zimmerman", and pronounced the same).


he had amazing inventions, like this fire-bicycle:
a side-by-side tandem bike, which liberates the wife
an early childhood as a girl, including attendance at a girl's school until adolescence when he was kicked out

he took over editorship of the magazine "Happy Home" and renamed it to match reality, "Unhappy Family",


an early electric massager:

how to save wear-and-tear on your horses going downhillan ingenious hat that doesn't muss hairdos

a pince-nez that holds your hat up (or was it vice versa?)


a fantastic idea for serving at long tables, a train track that runs back to the kitchen. come to think of it, i saw this in sushi restaurants in europe!
"a stable bicycle for rough terrain"
and the tangoing tortoise:


some links: wikipedia's biography of him, and here you can see a photo of his bust, which i saw in the museum.