Many of these partyers who assembled in north Bohemia for a rave this weekend were at last year's CzechTek festival, which, as we all know, was raided by baton-swinging police whose excessive force was broadcast across Europe by television news outlets. It also resulted in weeks of protest demonstrations in Prague and calls for investigations.

The 2006 edition of CzechTek was a mild and orderly affair, of course, to the general disappointment of the hordes of journalists who gathered there this month, hoping for a replay. But police used restraint and kept their distance, trumping the media for once.

Resentment over the beatings still lingers, apparently, perhaps because Paroubek's administration never apologized for the event and was satisfied with the Interior Ministry's own investigation, which, predictably enough, found police blameless.

Trutnov performers don't agree, apparently, and gave out Paroubek's home address and the address of his summer cottage to those who attended the rave, suggesting they send him a "birthday card."

The ex-PM, who looks dour these days, turned 54 Aug. 21. Around the time of his 53rd birthday, CzechTek survivors circulated his mobile phone number to all and sundry, who sent him hundreds of enthusiastic not-so-polite messages.

The Lowdown hopes he celebrated with a good Czech vintage víno, such as a 1999 white or a 2000 or 2003 red. And there's a lot more where that came from: Though much of the country was roasting this summer, with record temperatures in July and early August, winegrowers say conditions made for some of the highest-quality grapes, both red and white, in recent memory.

Which is nothing to laugh at, of course. HBO is tending to that, however, with its continuing efforts to develop the so far nonexistent Czech tradition of standup comedy. The cable network is auditioning three-to-five-minute routines for a show called Na stojáka, or Standup, with plans to take the act live in days to come.