Very nicely written ("The Golden Girl," Sports, Dec. 20-Jan. 2). It is so nice to remember the stories behind many of the medals won by people all over — this one in particular. Thanks for the reminder, Mr. Pinelli.

United States

I commend Olga [Fikotová] for her Olympic achievements and her efforts after her divorce. What most people don't know is her current work in Southern California with seniors to promote physical fitness and to carry on her legacy with her work with the Senior Olympics.

Cynthia Rosedale

Pasadena, California

Nice history lesson by Mr. Pinelli. How we forget about the struggles of past athletes from different political backgrounds. In a time when honor and glory may become tarnished and short-lived, it's good to hear some stories have happy endings.

Ted Baumann

Park City, Utah

To kill or not to kill

In the Dec. 8 edition of The Prague Post ("Life or death," Opinion, Dec. 6-12), Kristina Alda wrote, "In the United States, it is a matter of record that many of those executed have later been proved not guilty and that death-row prisoners who are poor do not receive fair trials as provided for by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the U.S. Constitution."

Alda's assertion is ridiculous.

I challenge Alda to prove her assertion: name me one wrongly convicted murderer in the United States who has been executed in the past 30 years. I choose a 30-year time period because going back 70 ... 100 ... 200 ... 300 years is ridiculous because "facts" become impossible to verify.

Alda has been reading too many baloney stories about the death penalty in The New York Times, The Washington Post or Los Angeles Times.

Alda has been watching too many 1930 Hollywood movies if she believes that the states in the United States have been putting wrongly convicted murderers to death.

Rights of convicted murderers in the United States are the most protected of any criminals on this planet. If a convicted murderer in the United States wants to stop or at least slow down the date of his actual execution, it takes at least 15 years and it costs U.S taxpayers at least $5 million [100 million Kč] before the state or federal government comes even close to executing a convicted murderer.

I am not aware of any wrongly convicted murderer being executed in the past 30 years.

Enemies of capital punishment in the United States always scream out that the death penalty is not a deterrent. Of course, the death penalty can never be a deterrent when the lawyers defending a convicted murderer can drag out the legal appeals for years.

Often, the convicted murderer dies of natural causes before the state or the federal government can ever actually execute a convicted murderer.

Rich Volbrecht

Highland, Illinois

Editor's note: The Opinion piece Mr. Volbrecht refers to was written by Opinion contributor Gwendolyn Albert, not staff writer Kristina Alda.

Gwendolyn Albert's main argument is that most of the European Union is against Mr. Hussein's death penalty, and thus all of those in Old Europe who are for it are wrong. She couples Old Europe's thinking, Iraq and U.S. foreign policy with Saudi Arabia, Iran, Malaysia and China in a lackluster attempt to demean the practice simply by grouping the states still using the death penalty.

However, that logic is flawed. If Old Europe still used the death penalty, considering her argument, then should the harsh justice be acceptable? She attempts to point out how much more important and enlightened the ideologues of Old Europe are, instead of focusing on the practical execution of a murderous dictator.

Albert quotes an "eye for an eye" as a primitive reaction to the situation, yet she does not consider that "eye for an eye" reactions freed Europe from Nazi oppression. She does not consider the true far-reaching implications of a living Saddam, and that his living [would continue] to fuel sectarian violence.

Bryan Moody

Las Vegas

Justice demands that the response to an offense be proportionate. Capital punishment is required in the case of premeditated murder where there is no doubt of the offender's guilt. Restitution isn't possible in such a case. Saddam is a mass murderer and should have been executed. Capital punishment is set up to satisfy justice, preserve order in society and discourage the malicious destruction of innocent life. (After all, we have all been created in the image of God.) By not justly punishing such moral evil, the authorities would not be fulfilling their responsibility to society.

Hans Koebele

Strakonice, South Bohemia

Saddam got and continues to get away with more than he deserved, and his execution was far more humane than what his victims received. Saddam will never have to watch his own infant's head get smashed against a wall or his wife get raped and murdered by Baathist goons. He will never have to sift through a mass grave, desperately hoping to discover clues to the fate of a loved one who disappeared years before. He will never be put through a plastic shredder, nor will he die by internal bleeding because some goon rammed a steel cable up his rectum.

Brant Hadaway

Miami

No appetites

I open The Prague Post almost every week and turn to the restaurant section hoping against hope your reviewer has discovered something good ("Living on mediocrity," Night & Day, Dec. 20-Jan. 2). More often than not I am disappointed. Being the restaurant reviewer in Prague must be one of the most frustrating jobs.

Michael Bottoms

Prague

I second the comment above. I think that [restaurant reviews are] too often used to tell us about yet another horrible restaurant in Prague. We know there are lots of bad restaurants in this city, and there is only enough space for one review each week, so you should be using it to whet our appetites, not spoil them.

Rebecca Johnston

Prague

To the restaurant reviewer: Instead of wasting space with reviews of mediocre or bad restaurants every week, how about focusing exclusively on places that readers should actually go? Novel concept, huh?

Peter Jones

Prague

I would like to give the reviewer a bit of advice. Unless we are speaking about a top-of-the-range, posh-of-the-posh, luxury restaurant (or club), I believe you, and readers in general, should avoid places that will charge you 49 Kč [$2.36] for a 0.3l [10-fluid-ounce] glass of Pilsner or any other beer that you can easily find in Prague for half the price for a pint.

Max Bahnson

Prague

Editor's note: Obviously, we don't know ahead of time whether a

restaurant will be good or bad — that's the point of sending a reviewer. For restaurants that our critic recommends, see the listings in the Night & Day section.

Loved the tofu

One problem with the super- or hypermarkets ("Life after Delvita?" Opinion, Dec. 13-19) here is, where's the service? One could say that the Czech experience of communism relegated the population to literally ignore any aspect of "service." But why don't foreign managers of foreign chains stress "customer service" to their employees? I would drive across town if a supermarket made paying for items less stressful than the present situation that plays out at all companies: There's a long line, finally you get your turn, you unload your basket on to the belt, the lady scans your items and "pushes" them further, you have to scramble like a monkey to bag the stuff, and, if you're not done, the guy in back of you gets his stuff pushed right on top of yours. Horrible customer service.

Tomáš Budešínský

Prague

More reason to support local shops, bakeries and butchers. Buy stuff locally and look for stores that make an effort to offer a variety of fresh vegetables and other foodstuffs. It's entirely up to you, the consumer. The more you ask your local supplier for things you'd be willing to buy, the more he will be aware of the opportunities he can create for himself.

Philippe d'Exelle

Jesenice u Prahy, Central Bohemia

I'll miss [Delvita's] Bio coffee and the proper tomato paste that isn't the water, sugar and salt with tomato purée offered elsewhere. Mostly, I'll miss the reasonably priced tofu. I cannot fathom why the identical brand of tofu is 18 Kč at Delvita and 120 Kč at the "Bio" market. Delvita's own tofu line has been a reliable source for this vegan.

Brad Schmidt

Prague

Party crasher

After reading Julie O'Shea's Around Town article ("Around Town," Tempo, Dec. 6-12) about the Rexpatriates DVD release party, it became immediately apparent to me that Julie has almost no knowledge or understanding about life here in Prague. In fact, I have come to find out that she only arrived here a couple of months ago. Now, why would you assign the Around Town beat to a newbie? Are you really that hard up for help there that you have to put any warm body on a beat?

I had the honor of being present at the party and I have had the opportunity to see the film, which Julie apparently has not done. Here is a tip: If you are going to write a report on a DVD release party, try and watch the movie before you write the report.

The tone of Julie's article was condescending and amateurish. She left her journalistic objectivity back in the United States at some high-school newspaper, which it seems is where The Prague Post is doing most of its recruiting these days.

She claims that if you have never heard of the movie, you're not alone.

Julie's amateur status is also confirmed by calling Herold the best damn beer she has had since she landed. This is funny, as there was a joke going around the party about how bad the beer was. You are a real beer connoisseur, Julie. Calling Red Hot & Blues swank is another laughable comment. Don't get me wrong, it is a nice place and all, but far from swank. Was Julie raised somewhere in a farming community where they were lucky not to have dirt floors?

Lastly, Julie equates the event to a "frat-party atmosphere." Now, it has been a few years since I have been to a frat party, but this party had little in common with the parties I used to attend. If she was disappointed because it was a fun atmosphere, what do you expect when there is free beer and wine?

In the future, please put someone with more than a 2-day-old superficial knowledge of Prague and its happenings on the Around Town beat. Also, it would be nice if they didn't fill the article with their own amateurish personal opinions and nonsense instead of the facts.

Christopher Guilds

Prague

Editor's note: Staff writer Julie O'Shea had indeed seen Rexpatriates before penning this humor column.

Closing arguments

I enjoyed reading your article, "Frozen Out" (Banking & Finance, Dec. 13-19), about the problems associated with closing bank accounts in the Czech Republic. We dealt with ČSOB and quickly renamed it "Crooked Sons-of-Bitches." Closing our ČSOB account was perhaps the most absurd process we experienced after living in Prague for four months. At some point I realized how well Franz Kafka got it right in his writing about this country. And then it dawned on me that it is quite obvious that the Czech people, and particularly bankers, have never read Kafka. The people are just so passive and are so willing to put up with it and other senseless policies. How easy it must have been for the communists to rule for 40-plus years! How sad!

Steve Wisensale

Prague

Credit where it's due

The social side of a company's balance sheet is becoming increasingly important and recognized as something to be taken seriously ("Secret Santas," Opinion, Dec. 20-Jan. 2). It seems that maybe the Czech media do not understand fully the roles that companies could and should follow in this essential part of their activities. It's not just a question of making monetary donations to "worthy causes" but actually getting staff from top management downward to give some of their time, too. Of course, the media should play a leading role in encouraging this type of corporate activity and give both the companies and individuals some recognition. News should not always be about politics, crime and sport; sometimes reporting the efforts of the better off, to help those less fortunate, can inspire others to follow suit.

Richard James

Prague

So when will the Czech media finally wake up from their skepticism? What can we do as citizens to let them know that we want to know which companies are actually doing something good with their profits?

Joshua Tabin

Poděbrady, Central Bohemia

The visa vacuum

Writing as a foreigner who has had to go through this belittling process every year, the failure that is the Foreigners' Police comes down to the incapable decision-making and a lack of vision clearly present in the system ("Delays for visas continue," News, Dec. 13-19). This country's officials seem bent on creating quick fixes to every problem without actually tackling the source. The Foreigners' Police is just one example. Why does an applicant have to wait weeks just to find out he's missing proof of property ownership, then complete the entire application process again? That in itself is a tremendous waste of time and resources. I'm willing to bet that resolving this inane practice would cut the lines at the Foreigners' Police by a third. Until capable and forward-thinking leaders are brought in to resolve the mire that is the Foreigners' Police, we foreigners have little hope. By the way, whose brilliant idea was it to create just one entrance/exit to the building?

Sanan Phutrakul

Prague

Cancer crusader

I am writing you to react to Iva Skochová's article ("Penetrating myths," Opinion, Jan. 3-9), which surprised and disappointed me. First, even all medical students in the Czech Republic know about the hereditary character of this special type of colon cancer and that patients with a positive family history should be carefully followed. From this point, it was a big mistake of local doctors that they did not ask Skochová for any important information from her family history. In fact, having such a strong history from [her] mom's side should have been followed since her teens. Another point is the colonoscopy. It is a physically and psychically very unpleasant procedure and that is why it is only rarely done without sedation. It is hard to believe that in Prague you need to be in hysterics to get it. With sedation, it is really only a sweet dream with no further discomfort. Thank you, Iva, for your patient's point of view of our medical care and I wish you all the best for the future.

Jan Kunstýř