Life / DO ADULT CHILDREN EXPLOIT THEIR PARENTS IN POLAND? [22]

I believe yopu're right. I can't quote any legal paragraphs, clauses or subpoints, but it seems I was told that the law requries children to look after for their elderly parents in Poland.

News / Death Sentence in Poland, when was it abolished? Last executed? [26]

An even worse torture than disco polo would be forcing someone to listen to rap, rock and techno round the clock. Even suicide would be a better alternative!

Life / DO ADULT CHILDREN EXPLOIT THEIR PARENTS IN POLAND? [22]

Yes and no. Examples of everything can be found in any country, but there are also such things as countrywide trends. Here in America sending the elderly to old people's homes (nursing homes) is extremely widespread, whereas in Poland there is a stigma attached to it. Kids that would do so are looked upon as insensitive ingrates.

Life / DO ADULT CHILDREN EXPLOIT THEIR PARENTS IN POLAND? [22]

Whatever the case, family closeness in Poland is a helluva lot better than the
estrangement oft encountered in the West. An especially glaring example was a super heat wave a few years ago that killed tens of thousands, mostly elderly French people. When police finally tracked down their kids, many of them were reported saying things like: "You mean she was still alive?!"

A Scotsman I once worked with said he insisted his father should be cremated saying: "I don't plan to visit or tend his grave." Komentarz zbyteczny!

Food / Recipe for Polish potato noodle stew/soup/meatball [11]

The actual dumplings using only raw grated potatoes sound like pyzy, excpet those are boiled in salted water, removed with slotted spoon and served, often garnished with fried bacon and/or onion. But I've not heard of them being served in a sauce.

Food / KLUSKI Z SEREM -- family favourite. Lane kluski too. [10]

Merged: LANE KLUSKI - SUPER-EASY HOME-MADE NOODLES

To complement a recent chicken-soup thread, here are the easiest home-made noodles that can be made, and a Polish favourite for generations: LANE KLUSKI (poured noodles).

In a mug or measuring cup place 2 heaped tablespoons of flour, add a small egg and a bit of water (or broth) and stir vigorously until smooth and pourable. Add more liquid if too thick. Either pour it in a thin stream into the boiling broth or (if you don't want the soup to be cloudy) into a pot of boiling water and cook a few mintues. Drain and serve in soup.

Life / DO ADULT CHILDREN EXPLOIT THEIR PARENTS IN POLAND? [22]

I have never made a formal study of how many young marrieds bring their dirty laundry home to mum, but I have observed it within a circle of Polish family and acquaintances. Maybe some native Poles could comment on how widesperead this is.

Food / Polish-Style Chicken Soup (Rosol) [16]

I love garlic but I don't think it is a typcial ingredient of Polish rosół. What about other PFers? Will have to try it sometime.

Language / CONJUGATION OF CHLAĆ - CHLAM, CHLEJĘ or BOTH? [7]

Bóg zapłać!

News / WAŁĘSA TO AGITATE FOR LISBON IN EIRE [19]

The Nice Treaty now in force giver Poladn 27 votes as compared with 29 for Germany, hence it is very advantageous to Poles. Probably it was constrcuted that way to lure Poland into ther EU. The Lisbon Treaty mroe closely reflects population, hence Poland has far fewer votes than Germany.

History / Is there a good recent film on an important Polish battle/war/history fact? [11]

All three parts of Sienkiewicz's Triology have been featurised. The first Polish epic film was 'Krzyażcy' which came out in the early '60s. Katyń is a very good film. Lotna perpetuates the propaganda that Polish uhlans attacked German tanks with sabres.

Genealogy / Szalomski - Anyone with this surname out there? [7]

Merged: SZA£OMSKI, LORKOWSKI, DZIURDA, SOBIANEK SURNAMES

LORKOWSKI – toponymic nick from Lorki (Lawrenceville); some 700 users
DZIURDA - toponymic nick from Dziurdziów (Georgetown)
SOBIANEK - toponymic nick from Sobianowice (Selfsonville); possibly derived from first name Sobiesław
SZA£OMSKI - Your Shalom (peace) suggestion is interesting. Since so many different things have happened to Polish surnames over the generations, no option should be ruled out. Conceivably one might envision a Jew in Old Poland seen greeting people with „shalom” which to non-Jews may have seemed strange or exotic. That could have prompted someone to humorously dub him Szałomski (the shalom bloke). A bystander may have overheard the remark, repeated it and soon it caught on as a generally used nickname.

News / Death Sentence in Poland, when was it abolished? Last executed? [26]

Perhasp not everybody here knwws that Utah is the only American state that gives the convict sentenced to death a choice of firing squad or lethal injection.

History / What would Europe look like with Polish-Lithuanian-Ukrainian Commonwealth today [209]

That's an itneresting question. I believe the Commonwealth would probably not have survived the Versailles Treaty just as Austro-Hungary didn't. On the other hand, imperial Russia morphed into the USSR including all the tsars' conquests probably becuase of its remoteness from Western Europe's main seats of power.

The constituent parts of the Commonwealth (Lithuanians, Latvians, Belarussians, Urkainians) had begun clamourign for sovereignty and independence already back in the 19th century. The break-up of Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia have also underscored the unlikelhood nad unviability of mutli-ethnic states.

But...in history, culture and poltics most anything is possible, so who knows???? Maybe someday....??

USA, Canada / Polish Family in US or other countries to practice traditional customs [9]

From my observation it varies greatly from family to family. In general it is generational: first generation most Polish, 2nd less, 3rd, even less, 4th - sometimes only vestigial elements survive, 5th - little or nothing left as family is now fully Americanised. But exceptions abound:

--People living in or near a heavily Polsih populated community tend to retain more traditions.
-- Someone in the family visiting Poland often revives ethnic interest with his/her tales, photos and souvenirs.
-- A Pol-Am marrying someone from Poland often helps re-Polonise the family.
-- Business, academic or other professional contacts with Poland or Poles often generate newfound ethnic curiosity.

Life / Websites for Polish hospitals/hospices [7]

Merged: POLISH HOSPITALS INFECTED?

Don't ask for links becuase I got his info from private e-mails. Many people in Poland seem to think their hospitals are badly infected with viral hepatitis, HIV, sepsa and other horrid stuff. They come to be mended or treated for one malady and leave with what can be a life-threatening infection. Have you heard ot his? How widepsread it is? Does it affect only some towns or regions? I have heard things are pretty bad in Gdańsk and Warsaw. Private hospitals are much better but are quite pricey.

Food / What Polish food or drink do you not like and why? [37]

Now that I think of it, there is no Polish food I dislike. In fact I am partial to all Mittel Europa, Slavic, dishes, Jewish and Mediterranean foods.

I do not particulary fancy:
-- Marmite
-- curry dishes (and yellow mustard containing tumeric, a main curry ingredient)
-- American sweet green jello 'salad' served with meat
-- American pork chops and apple sauce
-- American cotton-fluff stuff (aerated packaged white bread)
-- Over-saged American bread sutffing for poultry
-- Weak, watered-down American restaurant coffee
-- Swedish rotten-smelling tinned fish and meat concoctions such as reindeer pâté (I thought they were off but was told by Swedes that's how they're supposed to taste!!!).

-- Bitter-tasting Belgian endive.

Language / Masculine Accusitive / Genitive - fruit, vegetables... [7]

I thought 'ustąpić komuś miejsca' was correct, because the verb ustąpić governs the gen. case (ustąpić komu czego according to Szober).

Genealogy / Is Grudnik name Polish? [11]

If you do a DNA test you can determine whether indeed your genes are more Slavic or Germanic. Maybe someone on PF who has alaready done this migth offer some advice to Ms Grudnik.

Genealogy / Is Grudnik name Polish? [11]

Wouldn't everybody prefer to be Polish than German. Ist es nicht viel besser Polnisch als Deutsch sein? I was always taught there were two kinds of people in the world -- those who are Polish and those who wish they were!

Genealogy / Is Grudnik name Polish? [11]

Grudnik is defintiely Polish or other-Slavonic, not German. Immigrants going to the US when Poland was occupied were often listed as Prusssian (German), Russian or Austrian, because it was those countries that issued the passports. Grudnik or grudniak are nicknames for people or animals born in December (grudzień).

The month gets its named from the word gruda meaning a clod of frozen soil that the mud of November turned into during a December cold snap.

Genealogy / "Ukrainian" surname ŁUSZCZENKO [3]

£USZCZENKO - root-word łuska (hull, husk, shell, pod) has created such derivatives as łuszczak (hazelnut that drops out of its protective pod) and then łuszczyć (to husk).

Possibly toponymic nick from such places as £uszcze, £uszczów, £uszczacz (Huskville, Hullton). There are likely similar localities in Ukraine and possibly in Belarus as well.

The hard pronunciation of £ (as a Ukrainian Л) is still heard in parts of eastern Poland.
Only if there are no localities in Ukraine incorporating that root or no such verb in Urkainian as лущити, could one argue that this name is of Polish origin. Besides, the -enko is a typical Ukrainian surname ending.

Incidentally, there are currently no £uszczenkos in Poland but mroe than 2,000 £uszczyńskis and around 1,100 £uzszcaks.

Life / HOW WIDESRPEAD IS RECREATIONAL DRUG USE IN POLAND? [30]

OK, on 12th Augsut at 10.43 a.m. I read on the Interia news portral, or was it Onet, or maybe, Gazeta online, or TVN24... The poitn is that I'm am not a walking computer that officially registers every snippet of imformation that zips by me.

Life / POLISH HOSPITALITY STILL ALIVE AND WELL? [17]

Pol-Am travellers who visited Poland decades ago and at present, as they have a scale of comparison. Used to be that Polish relatives would take off from work so they could show their Polonian families around, wine and dine them to death, take them from relative to relative and at each venue there was a major booze-up and pig-out. They would also try to load you down with souvenirs, linen tablecloths (my mum's still got one she was given back in the mid-1960s), not to mention dried mushrooms, spirytus... It didn't help to say you cannot take food into the USA, because "jakoś to będzie...dacie sobie radę". Also everyone drank the same bottle, you weren't allowed to miss a round ("oszukujesz!") and only the meanest of hosts allowed an unemptied bottle to be left on the table. By contrast, Poles who visited America often remarked about American hospitality: Nalał po kieliszku wódki, resztę schował do lodówki.