Over the centuries Romanians have found great
\nmany opportunities to employ various degrees of humor in their day-to-day
\nlives. For instance, there have been cities or regions that became the object
\nof jokes and mockery, so to say. In the second half of the 19th
\ncentury and all the way through the 20th century, the town of Mizil
\nin Prahova County became the target of satire. At the time Romania was
\nundergoing a thorough process of accelerated modernization, which was hampered
\nat times. Mizil quickly became the symbol of this rash and often unfulfilled
\nmodernization. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Mizil as the object of mockery also features in literary works,
\nsuch as Cilibi Moise’s volumes of witty aphorisms. A Bucharest-based peddler of
\nJewish origins, Moses traded in haberdashery in a trading area in Lipscani, the
\nhistorical center of Bucharest. Cilibi Moses was illiterate and dictated his
\njokes to a typist working for a print shop which eventually released his volume
\nin 1870, the year of his death. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Publisher Eugen Istodor documented the
\nhumoristic references to Mizil. Here is what he found out about the Jewish
\npeddler.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Cilibi Moses not only mastered the informal
\nregister, but also discovered his witticism could actually be printed. He therefore
\ndiscovered a printer who started releasing his collection of jokes. One of his
\nfamous words of wisdom, passed down over generations, described Mizil as A
\nlarge bridge over no water. The description has remained truthful to date.
\nWe’ve recently visited the city, where we indeed found an oversized bridge
\nextending over a fine stream of water, a striking contrast. We can say,
\ntherefore, this was a joke. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In the early 20th century, many
\nwriters carried over some of the jokes commonly circulated regarding Mizil. In
\n1900, the great writer I.L. Caragiale, himself born in Prahova County,
\npublished his famous sketch, A Solemn Day. The object was not just Mizil, but
\nits mayor at the time, Leonida Condeescu, whom the author knew personally.
\nEugen Istodor told us more: <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
It is nearly impossible to think of
\nThermopile without immediately associating Leonidas. The same goes for Mizil,
\nthere was no Mizil without Leonida, the same as there was no Leonida without
\nMizil. What Leonida Condeescu did for
\nhis folk is impossible to describe in such a limited context. I would just
\nmention one of his biggest achievements, prompted by his ever burning desire to
\nhighlight the importance of Mizil, to raise Mizil to a position of power and
\nsee the town prosper<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
And
\nnow the facts. The problem seems to be a far too ambitious Leonida, determined
\nto solve the historic dilemma of the distance between Ploiesti and Buzau and
\nmore importantly, the problem of Mizil’s status and identity. Leonida does
\neverything in his power to offer Mizil a status. He even goes to the King for
\nthat, whom he tells: Sire, a lot has been done for other towns and nothing for
\nMizil. We do not have a county seat, a tribunal, a bishopric, the 32nd
\nregiment, a high school, a medical university, a national theatre or a bridge
\nover the Danube. None of it, Sire! …We are urging you to give us something. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Finally, things are starting
\nto move. An express train between Bucharest and Berlin, via Breslau is
\nintroduced. Leonida takes a look at the initial itinerary and notices that the
\ntime when the train stops in Mizil is not mentioned. He eventully finds out
\nthat the train does not stop in Mizil at all. After a year of efforts, the
\nmayor finally obtains something. On May 1st, 1900, train no. 5 from Bucharest
\nto Berlin and train no. 6 from Berlin to Bucharest stop in the railway station
\nin Mizil. The white little board
\nwith red letters, indicating the direction of the two extress trains, should read
\nfrom now on: Verlin-Bucharest via Breslau-Midil and the other way around,
\nBucharest-Berlin via Midil-Breslau.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
This is a happy ending that
\nconsolidated the humoristic fame of Mizil, but which jeopardized the friendship
\nbetween Caragiale and mayor Leonida Condeescu. The jokes about Mizil became
\nmore frequent in the printed press of the time, with famous journalists such as
\nFilip Brunea-Fox entering this game during the entire inter-war period. The
\navant-garde writer Geo Bogza, himself a talented journalist, wrote about Mizil
\nin an article published in 1938 and entitled 175 minutes in Mizil, after the number of minutes spent by the
\nauthor in the little town, while waiting for a connection train. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Eugen Istodor: Geo Bogza is in fact
\nsuggesting he got bored to death in Mizil and from a moment on he started to
\nenumerate the things he saw and did there. Here is minute 20: Going back to the square, on foot. A wooden
\nfence. Minute 23 : Getting to the middle of the square. Doing
\nnothing. It is like you see Geo Bogza standing still for one minute. It
\nmakes you want to use your stopwatch. Minute
\n24 : Mizil ! Minute 26 : A dog passes by. Minute 27 : I am
\nin Mizil. At minute 31, the dog that he had seen passing earlier, at minute
\n26, passes again, looking bored. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The jokes about Mizil are in fact an irony at
\na too ambitious provincial town, which tries to become more important than
\nallowed by its real status. In time, the place of Mizil was taken, in terms of
\nmockery, by other towns such as Caracal, Vaslui and Focsani. <\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Over the centuries Romanians have found great many opportunities to employ various degrees of humor in their day-to-day lives<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":169579,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45210],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-169578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rri-encyclopaedia"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n