New at Reason

Julian Sanchez | June 22, 2005

Matt Welch grabs his garlic and ventures in to the Romanian political scene.

Comments

|6.22.05 @ 4:51PM|#

Now we know where all those Weekly World News stories come from...

|6.22.05 @ 6:06PM|#

I hope somebody in that "poor, politically fragile country" has some money! I`ve got a big job quoted to a company in Bucharest. If I get it I`ll take my garlic and a 10lb. bag of mojo.

|6.22.05 @ 6:41PM|#

Matt....

Nice to know that Malta and Cyprus are former Communist countries....

Check your facts, the EU only 'swallowed' 8 former communist nations in 2003.

|6.23.05 @ 3:47AM|#

Rene,

as to those facts you may have a point, but look -- you must know that such a superior authority on everything European as Mr Welch can never allow such trivialities to stand in the way of his pontifications.

After all, nobody knows better what we wretched, undereducated, and xenophobe Euros really need than our noble, generous, and sophisticated author from the Golden State.

|6.23.05 @ 5:20AM|#

I can explain the near-constant presence on Ananova. Romania is covered by a press agency based in Vienna that makes a tidy business out of selling news of the weird stories lifted from local papers.
I reckon it's a tribute to the vibrant popular press emerging in C/E Europe.
The agency gets good stories from Hungary, too. Here's today's offering.....


A Hungarian man who filmed his neighbour as he murdered his girlfriend has been fined just 80 pounds after he admitted calling TV stations to try and sell the footage rather than emergency services.
The court heard that while the woman lay bleeding to death he was on the phone trying to get the largest amount possible for the footage instead of calling an ambulance, and he had been filming the bitter row as the couple traded insults instead of calling the police.