La Bolshe Vita

Hungarians love chocolate -- indeed, it is their favorite sweet. They eat it in pastries, cakes, cookies, and even as the stuffing of a pancake called palacsinta. But last week Budapest was abuzz with rumors of a scandal that turned many a Communist sweet tooth sour. At lavish parties run for high government officials by the boss of Hungary's state-controlled national catering service, the piece de resistance was a chocolate-covered airline hostess.

As the rumors had it, Caterer-cum-confectioner Lajos Onodi operated a roulette parlor in the Budapest suburb of GOed. The gambling den, frequented by foreign diplomats as well as Hungarian officials, not only had a rigged roulette wheel but plenty of scantily clad girls--many of them recruited from Malev, the Hungarian state airline--who were raffled off as the evening progressed. On at least one occasion, a Malev hostess coated in chocolate was first prize, whereupon the Communist big shot who won her retired for a high-calory dessert.

Though Hungarian Party Boss Janos Kadar was apparently too embarrassed by the Catered Affair to reveal these details, he did bring formal charges against Onodi (whose brother-in-law is Justice Minister Ferenc Nezval). Onodi and ten cronies will go on trial later this month for having "caused damage to the economy amounting to 400,000 forints ($17,500)." No one explained just who or what had been damaged, but it seemed clear that, as one Budapest daily dejectedly commented, "the time for urimuri (gentleman's fun) is over."

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