News / Poland will take half a century to catch up with the West [240]

Remember Wrocław Boy, we differ from snails and pigs in that besides the purely physical, there is a spiritual, cultural, moral and ethical side to man. Roads and bridges ALONE are like a dry, warm kennel, but the dog is unable to rise above that. Give him food, water and bitch in heat, and it doesn't get any better!

But as homo sapiens must we not try to rise above the purely zoological?

Language / Help Required Teaching Sister Polish [9]

Try the CO TO JEST? game, pointing to colorful pictures of people, animals and things in children's books or comics. Small prizes for correct answers are always an incentive.

News / Poland will take half a century to catch up with the West [240]

Is a glut of consumer goods bought on credit, an obsession with creature comforts and a house cluttered with high-tech gadgetry truly good for the human spirit? Does the obsessive pusruit of pleasure and self-indulgence create a decent person, an involved citizen and a devoted spouse and parent?

During his recent trip to Poland the Dalai Lama asked: "Is having a lavish house and lavish car tantamount to true happiness?"
It's something to think about. Let's hope Poland never catches up to the West in terms of the number of broken families, out-of-wedlock births, twisted lives, unhappy children, sexual perversity, drug abuse and irreligion -- all the things that lead to social depravity and decay.

Food / Polish Cake for Christmas [30]

The makowiec filling besides crushed poppysseds may include chopped nuts, raisins, candied orange peel, honey and other goodies.

Life / POLISH MORTAL SINS? [7]

Some say all people are alike, but the Polish anarchic streak is not found generally among the 'Ordnung muß sein' types to the west. And what other country had liberum veto, whereby a single MP could dissolve parliament and send everybody heading home to the far corners of the sprawling Rzeczpospolita?

Life / WOMAN PRIESTS? - NOTHING NEW IN POLAND! [8]

I have never heard of the Pol-Am Catholic Church. Please give me a fill, OK?

Genealogy / Anyone know "Szarmanski?" [6]

** Jarmuła from jarmolić (to make a racket) might have meant a noisy SOB.
**Wójcik (the village mayor’s son) – Poland’s 4th most popular surname with nearly 100,000 users.
**Wolmut, Polish transcription of German Wohlmut (wellbeing).
**Juszyczyzn doesn't seem quite right. Could it have been Juszyczyn or Juszczyszyn?
**Ciężczak is a properly formed patronymic nickname for the son of someone called Ciężki (heavy, overweight or dull of mind).
**Mądrzykowski looks to have arisen as a double patronymic nickname. Someone locally known as Mądry (the wise one) sired a son who was called Mądzryk. When he in turn married and fathered a son (out-of-wedlock bastards were not well looked upon back then!), fellow-villagers might have called him Mądrzykowski.

**Lelakowski – possibly from lelać się (to swing, rock, sway); someone who walked this way might have been dubbed lelak and his son became lelakowski; or from lelek (goatsucker – a nocturnal bird) or the locality of Lelek.

Life / WOMAN PRIESTS? - NOTHING NEW IN POLAND! [8]

The are deaconesses but not fully ordained woman priests in the RC Church. (Unless something new happened last night I haven't heard about yet?!)

Food / ALCOHOL CONTENT OF US BEER? [18]

DIid some net-surfinn and it seems all lite beers are about 1% weaker in alcohol content than the regtular brews. They also seem to have all the taste drained out of them and have to be drunk super cold to numb the senses.

realbeer.com/edu/health/calories2.php

Love / Marriage/Relationships: PNCC vs. Roman Catholic [6]

Several PNCC married priests have been received into the RC Church WITHOUT RE-ORDINATION, meaning that their PNCC Holy Orders were regarded as valid by the Vatican. By contarst. when Anglican priests are received into the RC clergy, they have to be re-ordained according to the Roman Rite. All PNCC sacraments are regarded as VALIDUM SED ILLICITUM (valid but illicit), but in the post-Vatican II era these differences are usually not emphasized. When a mixed PNCC-RC couple marries in one of the two churches, a priest of the other side is on hand to bestow his blessing on the newly weds, meaning that their marriage is accepted as binding by both churches. Incidentally, in Poland, the PNCC is known as the Polish-Catholic Church (Kościół Polskokatolicki). They've got nearly 100 parishes in Poland, in most major cities (2 in Warsaw) as well as in some smaller towns and villages as well. For more info Google Kościół Polskokatolicki.

Life / FISH SYMBOL ON POLISH CARS? [37]

But was it around before the collapse of communism? Of course, there weren't that many cars on the road back then.

Genealogy / MARZEC, ŚRODA, NAWROCKI WERE OFTEN CONVERT NAMES [5]

Ring the Sieradz Urząd Gminny (municipal offcie) and ask for the Dział Ewidencji Ludności where records are kept. They will inform you if such a eprson still lives there. Of course, you must communicate in Polish.

Genealogy / Karnaz or Karnas from Przemyśl [4]

The ancestral nest of the bearers of the Karnas and Karnaś surnames is present-day Poland's SE corner, although it had originally stretched into prewar Polish territory now belonging to Ukraine. The root may be "karny" (penal) or an Old Slavonic root *"krnъ" which once meant crippled. For more information please contact research60@gmail

Life / Who brings presents in Radomsko or Poland in general? [7]

Gwiazdor emerged in the 19th c. as a kind of cross between a star-bearing caroller and św. Mikołaj. It was the custom in Wielkopolska for the star-bearer, who led the carolling party on its house-to-house rounds and was usually dressed in a long sheepskin coat worn fleece-side-out, to also quiz kids on their prayers and good deeds. He rewarded them with apples or other small treats but also had a bundle of switches along in case they got something wrong.

This custom was reinforced by Bismarck's anti-Polish/anti-Catholic Kulturkampf which was promoting a desacralised Weihnachstmann (Christmas man) in a long hooded robe as a substitute for św. Mikołaj. Eventually that figure became known as Gwiazdor in Wielkopolska -- reinforced by the fact that Gwiazdka (Star Feast) is also another name for Christmas in honour of the Star of Bethlehem.

Today, many if not most Wielkopolonian kids call the American garden-dwarf (Santa) Gwiazdor interchangeably with św. Mikołaj.
In some areas, a similar role to the head caroller was played by Stary Józef, a bearded, sheepskin-garbed visitor who also quizzed the kids. Back then, things were not as uniform, standardised and regimented as they are today and local variation was the name of the game.

Genealogy / Anyone know "Szarmanski?" [6]

In Polish there is a word (adj.) szarmancki used to describe a gallant, sweep-'em-off-their-feet type of charmer from the French charmant. A bit strange for a surname, but with names one never knows.

Only 27 people in Poland use the Szarmański surname, and all live in the recovered territories. That suggests their roots had been east of the River Bug.

Language / SARKOZY -- SARKOZY'EGO or SARKOZEGO? [14]

No, you are wrong. The Russians write der Führer's surname as Гитлер (Gitler)!

Food / Looking for a Simple Polish Rabbit recipe. [11]

For oven roasting it's best to lard the rabbit with frozen lardoons (they are stiff and go in better!), otherwise the meat may be dry. Then roast as you would a chicken until fork-tender. Serve with buraczki -- a typical Polish go-together with rabbit dishes.

Food / Polish Cake for Christmas [30]

Pudding is not eaten at Christmas. The main Chrsitmas cakes are: makowiec aka strucla z makiem (poppy-seed roll), piernik (honey-spice cake/gingerbread) and keks (a fruit cake less heavy than the English variety with more dough and fewer fruits and nuts). Individual families also bake babka, murzynek, karpatka, sękacz, szarlotka and others, although these are not specifically Yule-related cakes.

Life / Presents that remind you of poland [15]

- Crystalware: carafes, goblets, vases, bowls, baskets, etc.
- tipples to fill the carafes with: wiśniówka, żubrówka, śliwówka, tarniówka, jarzębiak, żołądkowa, orzechówka itp.
- folk dolls, folk costumes
- amberware: jewellery, figurines
- wycinanki: for framing or placing beneath glasss table tops

Life / ANYONE OWN A POLISH DOG? [22]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_Tatra_Sheepdog
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_Lowland_Sheepdog

The PON is the original shaggy dog -- small, cute, funny, its eyes permanently covered by hanging hair. A good hosue pet.
The Podhale Sheepdog is large, snowy white, stately and dignified but friendly and good with kids.

USA, Canada / Stories from Babcia's homeland Poland- Please join in the discussion [29]

I owe a great deal to my four Polish-born grandparents, esp. ny paternal grandmother and maternal grandfather who were the most inclined to talk about teh Old Country, remembered the lore and literature. When asked if I grew up speaking Polish, I usually do a double take: well, yes and no. Yes, I spoke something similar to Polish with all four rgandparents, but no, it was not the real hgih-class Old World Polish, but more like a Polonian half-na-pół jargon: bara, kara, bejzment, stepsy, buczer, druksztor, policman, ticzerka, etc. But when I did take a course in Polish at unviersity, I had something to build upon -- the concept of inflection was not totally new or alien, and Russian came much easier as well.

Unlike other families, where it was a fight each year over where holiday dinners are to take place, things fell nicely into place: Wigilia was always at my paternal grandmother's, and Christmas Day at the other side; and similarly -- Easter breakfast at the paternal side and Easter dinner at the maternal. Besides the various foods --zrazy, barszcz, zimne nogi, flaczki, krupnik (the soup), kapuśniak, naleśniki, pierogi, chruściki, pączki, etc. -- I grew up with such notions as poprawiny, imieniny, chrzciny, święcone, wigilia, oczepiny and many more.

Since my parents operated a small family business taht kept them tied t'down a lot, as a young child I spent a lot of time with my grandparents. Those early conatcts made a lasting imrpession and triggered a life-long itnerest in things Polish. I have found this to be true of other Polish Americans as well. Those who spent a lot of time with grandparents and spoke Polish to them were more likely to take an interest in their ethnic heritage than those who saw their babcia and dziadzio only a few times a year.

Love / POLISH FEMALES PREFERABLE TO MALES? [12]

What I really had in mind was not the intra-Polonian situation, but rather the way Brits, Nordics, Italians, Dutch, Germans, Arabs et al (dunno about the Irish?) seem to go for Polish girls, widely seen as smart dressers, passionate and compassionate, ibntelligent, helpful, responsible, competent, hence good potential wife and mother material. On the contrary, by and large, the females of the above nationalities do not seem overly impressed by Polish menfolk who must come off as nondescript and lacklustre. Is it because those females are mainly after ₤₤₤, €€€ or $$$???