News / POLAND'S CREDIT CRAZE [34]

Polish bank's are outdoing each other in a bid to get Poles to borrow. One bank's even got a TV advert that shows a cash loan being dished out and weighed on a scale like fruit at a greengrocer's. Anotehr bank says it will lend anyone off the street 5,000 złots even if they've got no proof of a steady income. The lifestyle based not on one's earnings but on credit has spread to Poland and people are being urged to take out credit cards, get mortgages and loans for cars, holidays, kids' schooling, appliances, whatever.

Is this not going the same way as the US? Yes, there are corrupts banks and inefficient government bureacrats but isn't the bottom line oridnary people talked into instant gratificiaton? You don't save up for anything -- you must to have it here and now!!!

Life / AMERICAN-STYLE SLOB CHIC IN POLAND? [24]

To what extent has the American-style slob chic taken root in Poland? You know --people gouing round in scuffled adidas sports shoes, trainers or T-shirts, wearing baseball caps, swilling beer straight from the bottle or can, talking 10 decibels too loud in public, burpuing, breaking wind, using foul language and thinking this makes them o so trendy. And females trying to act just as yobby and slobby.

Or do most Poles regard such behaviour as "niekulturalny"?

Language / SMS known to English speakers? [6]

An American told me he was unfamiliar with the term SMS and said in the States it was called texting, not SMS-ing. What about the UK? Any comments?

Law / POLAND NEEDS FISH & CHIPS? [9]

Does anyone think a traditonal English-style fish&chip shop would go over well in big Polish cities? The taste, low cost, quick service and convenience migth give the McDonalds and KFCs a run for their money, innit?

Life / IS POLAND A GOOD PLACE TO RETIRE IN (FOR A POLONIAN)? [8]

Is Poland a good palce for an American or Canadian of Polish ancestry to spend their retirement in? Would his old-age pension go further in Poland than back home? Let's say he was getting $1,300 a month.

What would be other pluses and minuses? How well would he have to speak Polish to get by comfortably? Would he be accepted by native Poles? Could he make friends easily?

Any other suggestions or comments on this?

Love / DO POLISH GAYS ALSO DIE YOUNG? [56]

Evidence obtained on the basis of extensive research carried out over many years in the US, Canada, Britain and Scandinavia has shown that the average life expectancy of sexually active homosexual males is from 20 to 25 years shorter than that of heterosexuals. Does anyone know why that is that is the case? Has anyone heard of similar studies conducted in Poland?

UK, Ireland / BRITS LIKE POLISH FOOD [51]

The Polish restaurants and pubs serving food sprouting up across the British Isles were originally established mainly to serve the growing immirgant community but are being frequented by a growing number of locals. A case in point is Pol Taste, a newly opened restaurant operated by the Cichoński family in Kidderminster, a town in England’s West Midlands area. According to owner Greg Cichoński, 41, the eatery is proving a hit with customers developing a taste for Polish-style “gulasz”, sauerkraut dishes, breaded pork cutlets, chicken soup and red cabbage. “I wasn’t sure how our food would go down but now we’re seeing more British people in here,” Cichoński explained. It cost the family £50,000 (nearly $90,000) to refurbish the premises of a former filling station into a 40-seat restaurant.

Genealogy / Adolf Srajda [5]

During the Nazi occupation of Poland a man came to the registrar's office wanting to change his name because people made fun of it. "What is your name?" the clerk asked.

"Adolf Srajda," the man replied.
"Well, what would you like to change it to?"
"Stanisław Srajda," came the man's reply.

Language / Road Madam = dictionary Polish [23]

Trying to write or speak Polish (pr for that matter any foreign langauge) on the basis of a dictionary definitions entails numerous pitfalls, especially when a given word has several means.

One young Pole tried to impress an aunt in the USA by writing a letter in English which he began with the words "Road Madam" (Droga Pani).

Do you know of any other such examples?

History / Aggressive Germans pushed out pre-Poles [35]

Forerunners of today's Slavonic Poles stretched all the way to the River £aba
Elbe), but those largely pacific, non-bellicose tribes of farmers, hunters and gatherers were brutally rolled back by the aggressive, greedy and blood-thristy Krauts. The Polabians, whose name means their land stretched to the Elbe (po £abę), are proof of that. The same goes for the Pomeranians whose name means they lived along the sea (po morze). The German Pommern is merely a translation from the early Slavonic. The names of many localities in Germany east of the Elbe including Zittau (Żitawa) clearly reveal their proto-Polish non-Germanic roots.

News / DID JEWISH COMICS ENTRENCH THE POLACK JOKE? [NEW]

As a land of immigrants (JFK's description), ethnic humour has beeen around in the US since time immemorial. There were jokes about kikes, coons, hillbillies (ENGLISH), dagos, spics, greasers, krauts, scanadihoovians, micks, polacks, bohunks, hunkies, cannucks, etc., etc. They usually came and went in phases such as the knock-knock or moron jokes, all except the POLACK JOKE, which has displayed unusual durability. Why didn't the public tire of them after a year or two? Some say this had to do with the Polish communist government's 1968 anti-Semitic purge which sent thousands of Jews leaving the country or losing their fat-cat jobs. Unable to get back at Warsaw, Jews in the American entertainment industry turned their venom on the msot conveneint ersatz victims -- Polish Americans. Mostly these were anti-blue-collar jokes often involving the allegedly Polish three Bs: beer, bowlinng and bingo, which had nothing to do with Poland.

One went: How can you tell the bride and groom at a Polish (American) wedding? They're the only ones wearing clean bowling shirts.
These joeks were spewed year and year by Rowan adn Martin, Carol Bruentt and other TV shows, stand-up comics and other entertainers, thereby artificially perpetuating them long beyond the normal longevity of your average here-today gone-tomorrow ethnic humour.

Love / POLISH GIRLS SUPERIOR TO POLISH MALES? [5]

One sometimes hears that Polish girls are generally more attractive as girlfriends, live-in lovers, fiancées, wives or whatever than Polish blokes are as boyfriends, etc. Do you agree? If so, why is this the case?

In a similar vein, Polish gals are said to be superior to British Isles lasses in the above capacities. Is that true? If so, what qualities of Polish womanhood make the difference?