Tail End Charlie

A little proverb 

Text: Jan Zdiarský

That's what we say here: 'Too many dogs kill the hare.' I'm not sure how to translate this proverb into English in a way that is understandable to our non-Czech and non-Slovak readers. However, it's quite possible that English has a similar proverb, and we can't rule out the possibility that we borrowed this proverb from someone else a long time ago.

Today, I am not here to reflect on linguistics and the origin of sayings, but to explain why this issue of Info magazine is reaching you two days late. The first reason, the one-day delay, is purely pragmatic; the second is purely about me. I admit that the following lines are not intended as self-flagellation, but rather as a glimpse behind the scenes of how Info is created for you.

Finalising the programme and refining the details of the E-Day 'modelling celebration' in Litoměřice this weekend (the previous one for readers of the English edition, of course) meant that we had to postpone the release of the E-Day special issue until Tuesday, 30 September. Since the regular October issue of Info magazine was due to be published the following day, we have decided to delay its release until Thursday, 2 October. Finalising the magazine and converting it into the Triobo system, through which you read the issue, is demanding and time-consuming in terms of both human resources and technology.

I am writing this column at 'five past twelve', or more accurately, 'after the five', on Thursday 2 October, which suggests that the plan did not work out.

My head is filled with thoughts about what we mustn't forget in the run-up to the E-Day event, both in general, based on event preparation meetings and the duties of our main E-Day staff, and personally. This mainly concerns my own responsibilities, such as preparing prizes for the winners of the individual categories and organising modelling club shows. Notably, the number of modelling clubs and SIG registrations for this year's E-Day has increased by a third compared to last year.

Many of you will understand that this is where the dogs I wrote about at the beginning come in: the ones that ultimately kill the hare. As I was leaving Eduard's headquarters in Obrnice today, satisfied that I had finalised the last of the preparations for the upcoming event, my phone rang. It was Kateřina Borecká, the head of the marketing department, who asked me how the finalisation of the Info magazine was going. She and her colleague, the graphic designer Petr, were waiting for the missing items. When I asked what was missing, she replied, 'Tail End Charlie...' A string of thoughts ran through my head, reminding me that just yesterday I had been thinking about the article I had to write, contemplating the best topic: whether to write about the perhaps finally arriving Indian summer or the Fw 190, which is being restored in Turkey. But these thoughts simply evaporated from my head, and it was only Kateřina who brought me back to reality.

Of course, there was nothing left to do but tell Kateřina that we would have to publish the info magazine on Friday and that I would rectify the situation in the meantime. I seem to be doing that, and I'll be finished soon. But before I finish, I'll try to find something positive about this time shift – something that might even surpass the efforts of my alibi-seeking hounds. Thanks to the fact that the magazine will be published just one day before E-Day, when Friday's programme will be in full swing, we will be able to keep secret until the last moment what the gift kit for exhibiting modellers will be: a brand new 1/72 scale Eduard Enstrom helicopter, which we needed to give adequate space to in the magazine. I'm sure you've read a lot about it.

So perhaps I can use another proverb: 'Every cloud has a silver lining', although many of you would probably apply a different proverb to me today: 'Those who are not blessed will not buy it at the pharmacy!'