Thanks to Del (my research, let me show you it)

I was complaining that online fashion historians were horribly vague about class and in fact seemed to be only talking about the aristocracy most of the time, and personheaddel_c suggested searching instead for images of people in the particular jobs I am interested in, in years that are equivalent to my story time.  Thanks to this strategy, I now know what those collars really look like when worn (as opposed to a Leyendecker Arrow Collar advertisement).  And also, I know that Albert Einstein went to Prague and attended intellectual gatherings with . . . Franz Kafka. That is very cool. Also, I found out about Einstein's assistant, Emil Nohel, the son of a Jewish farmer, previously a high school physics teacher, who lived to see his whole family killed by the Nazis, and himself as well.

I am experimenting with adding specific Central/Eastern European city names to the searches, but "Krakow" and "Prague" turn up a lot of Delacroix and Beveridge, which is not the end of the world but is really puzzling.  Delacroix is not even remotely in the time period.  But I guess it got the tag because elsewhere in the blog in question there was an article about Jaroslav Hašek (whose portrait might have been helpful except that it was only a head shot and showed nothing at all).

(irrelevant aside inspired by an illustration on a Kafka website: the german name Franz is the same as Frank and also František. My Frank doesn't like to be called František, as it sounds like a diminutive to him, and this caused a bit of friction in his Czech language class.  I like the sound of the name myself, but I have no need to call him that.  We never called him Frankie when he was little: we called him Franklin).

Another oddity I turned up was a mug shot for Menachim Begin when he was a mere terrorist and not a world-renowned statesman and architect of the policy of unrelenting war against Palestinians.  People don't remember that that whole generation of Israeli leaders got their start blowing up tourist hotels.  Aside: Einstein held out for a bicultural state, integrating Arabs and Jews, but most of his friends wouldn't even consider it. 

And also I found what looks like a real gem: the Ptak Science Books blog, which has articles about almost everything, it looks like.  I'm in danger of reading it all day.

Anyway, I think Yanek has to have a stiff collar and a ribbon tie.  Some of these folks are wearing a modern tie and a pointy folded-down collar, but I think that those are too modern for a conservative environment such as the one Yanek lives in.

Bingo.  I found the photo sleuth!

. . . also . . .

My mother was right. VIlna (Vilnius to you) was in fact in Poland at the time that my grandparents emigrated. Which means that it was officially Wilnow. Historical atlases put it in Russia.  I realize that both could be true, but if my mother was right about that, maybe she was right about the story of my grandmother and the Cossacks?

Urgent question

What on earth is this bridge thing for?  It doesn't have a sign on it, and it's clearly not for traveling between the houses.  Is it reinforcement, to keep the buildings from collapsing into the street?