Evidently when Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek blasted the Obama stimulus plan as “the road to hell,” he was ad-libbing from his prepared remarks, in which he was to say “road to ruin.”
But that’s less interesting than the revelation that the inspiration for Topolánek’s impromptu turn of phrase came from AC/DC’s classic song “Highway to Hell,” reports the Czech daily Lidové noviny.
It seems AC/DC played Prague last week, and the PM was in the house, so he had, uh, Satan on the mind.
The piece from Lidové noviny, described in an NYT blog, also includes an observation from Petr Bílek, the head of the Department of Czech Literature at Charles University in Prague (he also taught the best literature class I ever took when I first studied in Prague many moons ago). Bílek notes that Topolánek’s phrase “way to hell” resonates far more strongly in English than the Czech equivalent “cesta do pekel,” “And especially in view of the Christian hues of American society versus Czech atheism.”
Of course, it would’ve been a whole lot funnier, and possibly more damning of the American ethos, had Topolánek drawn inspiration from other classics of the AC/DC catalog, like “What Do You Do for Money Honey” or “The Jack.”
[...] it is tempting to follow the lead of Scott Brown of “Springtime for Dubcek” (http://springtimefordubcek.wordpress.com/2009/03/27/for-those-about-to-shock-we-salute-you/) and speculate about other songs that Topolanek might have used with regard to administration [...]