Genealogy / What does Germanised mean? [29]

On the basis of that info alone, one might venture the guess that it soudns mroe Bohemianowuld be Bohemian (Czech) than German. But so many different things have happened to names over the generations that such a guess could well be incorrect. There is a well-known PO woman politician named Piteras -- perhaps that was one form of Petera.. But again that's only a guess.

USA, Canada / Poland not far behind the USA? [20]

Again nit-pikcing! As a self-procialmed professor of English you must knopw that forms such as Italo-, psycho-, anarcho- imply partiality. A Sino-Japanese conference is not 100% Chinese. Anarcho- therefore as it is used here is not synonymous with anarchy en toto, but implies an element of anarchisation. In the conterxt I have used it in the term means the 'anything goes' approach, freewheeling disrgeard for the moral order as emexplified by the Decalogue.

History / Adam Michnik's half-brother Stefan different father [11]

All the KOR-ites availed themselves of the hosptiality of Church premises (churches, rectories, catechetical centres), etc. for meetings, lectures and oterh activites after martial law was declared. He unleashed his full anti-clerical fury only after coming to power, and that's what he, as the consummate 'poltical animal', was after in the first place.

USA, Canada / Poland not far behind the USA? [20]

All Christians should move towards ecumenism ('Aby byli jedno'). They have much more in common than the godless,
depraving, anarcho-libertine scum which is spreading its mroal decay far nad wide thesse days..

USA, Canada / Poland not far behind the USA? [20]

If it's more moral that's only because the wholesale murder of the unborn (abortion on a whim) is illegal. But then youi call that 'pro-choice'. Why is it that the foaming-at-the-mouth pro-abortionsits deny that choice to the father. Even where choice is legal, the written consentthe biolgocial father should be a mandtory prerequisite.

History / Adam Michnik's half-brother Stefan different father [11]

Sorry, Michnik is a self-admitted pagan! I actually heard him say so years ago with his impish, then rotten-toothed grin (he has since had his teeth fixed). He and his ilk engaged in their dissident activites under the Church's protective cassock, but after PRL collapsed, his 'laica lewicka' turned on the Church.

History / Adam Michnik's half-brother Stefan different father [11]

No. Old lady Michnik really got around and Stefan's dad was an unnamed communist killed in 1937 in the USSR. The father of Adam (of GW fame) was Ozjasz Szechter who died of natural causes in 1982. As far as can be determiend, both Michnik brothers were ouit-of-wedlock bastards. The question is: what was the name of Stefan's father?

USA, Canada / Poland not far behind the USA? [20]

You are a master of (to use our American basbeall slang) the curve ball, latching on to some peripheral, minor point like whether I am sober. I am BTW. I may have a single beer (Master Strong 6.6% ABV produced for Żabka by £omża Brewery) later tonight. You did not say whether you argee or disagree that in terms of moral decay Poland is not too far behind the US. Or maybe you believe prno-filth is freedom of expression and permissively reared kids running wild is the way to go. If so, say so.

Travel / So where are Warsaw's slums? [30]

Also the lack of minority groups clustering together in a given neighbourhood, as we have in (Hispanic) East Los Angeles, or Afro-American and Puerto Rican niiehgbourhoods in Chicago, NYC and elsewhere. Some ethnics have turned their districts into tourist attractions to mention only various Chinatowns, Pennsylvania Dutch (German) communties and such places as Holland and Frankenmuth, Michigan.

Maybe Wólka Kosowska on the outskirts of Warsaw will eventually evolve into an Oriental ghetto?!

Genealogy / What does Germanised mean? [29]

Yes, and for a train whsitling in the forest the Ślunzoks say: Wyje bana w lesie!

Genealogy / What does Germanised mean? [29]

Very little on Wasserpolnisch in Wikipedia, but I did run across this lexicon which may interest some language buffs:
fazi.strefa.pl/SLOWNIKSLASKI.html

Travel / So where are Warsaw's slums? [30]

What is your take on what makes slumdwellers tick? Anyhwere in the world. Slum clearnace projects are known in the US but these are municipal undertakings in which the actual slumdwellers do not take part. They seem happy to live in deterioratiung, rat-infested buildings and ctash-strewn surroundings. Or if not happy, at least it doesn't bother them that much. I don't mean pumping millions into a vast beautificaton project. A few people can get together and clear away trash, tidy things up, cut down weeds, rake up leaves, etc. and make the place more livable. Also crack down on crackhouses and low-life squats, But insetad of reporting such places to the authorites, they prefer to cower behind locked doors in fear of the riffraff. It's not all a financial issue (no money), but lagrely a mental and attitudinal one. Do any school programmes try to enlightened and alrert school children to such problems?

History / Polish Officer in NATO, Col. Ryszard Kukliński. [145]

The Guantánamo detetnion facility was opened after 7/11. It was created by pro-Polish George W. Bush in 2002.
Every penal system makes mistakes -- in civilian prisons in civilised countries occasionally an innocent person is framed and incarcerated. Presumably there may be a few innocent Arabs there too (although they are most likely terrorist sympathisers). But in view of the enormity of the 7/11 genocide (they killed people only becasue they were Americans), let's not overdo the bleeding heart nonsense.

Life / Do Poles drink before noon? [95]

Sorry, the typo-creating software has kicked in again.
It should've read: ... No real drinking in the Western sense.

Travel / So where are Warsaw's slums? [30]

I'm not na economist, but I can see that everybody produces and bandies about figures the suit their preconceived views orn genda.
Luxury-loving and high-living Rostowski is so detached from the common man, that everything he says is automatically suspect.

History / Polish Officer in NATO, Col. Ryszard Kukliński. [145]

Legal? The Nuremberg Laws (envisaging the destruciton of Jewry) were legal. That ugly toad of a slimeball Jerzy Urban openly told newsmen. 'There are no poltical prisoners in Poland, only people who have broken the law and been convicted on concrete charges.' (This during martial law!) You can make any kind of law, but can that be termed legal?

Re Guantanamo, in view of the nearly 3,000 innocent lives wantonly snuffed out (7/11) by camel-jockey terrorist scum (not to mention Madrid and London), Guantanamo (even with waterboarding and other 'attractions') is a Sunday school picnic. Bleeding-heart liberals would do well to focus more on victims than victimisers. How is it that they rarely if ever mention the estimated 160,000 Christians murdered each year world-wide for their faith?!

Life / Do Poles drink before noon? [95]

You must lead a very prosaic and pedestrian life devoid of higehr values and the abiltiy to expereince deep nostalgic emotion. Everything is so dull and humdrum. You talk about someone getting collected at the airport and life goes on -- I was referring to what have often been long-.awaited, once-in-.a-lifetime pilgirmages to the ancestral homeland. Visting the old family homestead and seeing one's Polish urname on family graves can be a moving experience. Touching base with long-lost relatives many didn't know existed opens up an entirely new dimension. These are often expeditions planned and saved up for years, eagerly anticipated by both sides and subsequently talked about for years to come. Plenty of snapshots, camcordings, souvenirs, personal observations and memories round out the picture. If you think of ordinary back-and-forth commuting, you have truly missed the point. It wouldn't be the first time!

Genealogy / What does Germanised mean? [29]

Germanisation could be both voluntary or coerced. Bismarck's Kulturkampf was an example of forced Germanisation and Protestantisation of Prussian-occupied Poland. It got so that school children were even prohibited from praying in Polish (the Września revolt) and Poles were barred from buying land (Drzymała's wagon). But there have always been turncoats willingly embracing the imposed alien culture for benefits and advancement, Some even Germanised their surnames (Górski>Berg, Bialik>Weiß, Młynarski>Müller, etc.), because non-Prussians could not even work as be postmen in Pomerania or the Posen (Poznań) region. This, of course, happens all over. A classic example was former US VP Spiro Agnew. He or his family had not only changed the Greek name Agnopolos (or something of the sort) but he abandoned Greek Orthodoxy and embraced (of all things!) Episcopalianism, regarded as an upscale denomination for the 'better set'. (The Episcopalian Church is the American offshoot of Anglicanism — a denomination set up by bloody wife-killer Henry VIII!)

Travel / So where are Warsaw's slums? [30]

Last week, when Kaczyński was unveiling his allegedly unrealistic (according to Rostowski) economic plan.

Life / Do Poles drink before noon? [95]

Everyone's got their own reality. The above images have been drawn not only from personal experience, but also first-hand reports of relatives, friends and even strangers who visited Poland for the first time. Often this was the first family contact in 50-100 years. US-born Polonians were usually visitng Poland for the first time and looking up long-lost realtives they had never seen before.

Those were frequently highly nostalgic and emotional meet-ups--typcially the Polish relatives recalled the parents or grandparents of their PolAm visitors sending them relief parcels after the war. My family actually sent a horse to relativs in Bydgoszcz. (Not physically, because the animals came from a European-based supplier.) One could send most anything through Pekao (the predecessor fo Pewex) building materials, ready-to-live-in flats, cars, textiles, foods, etc and, of course, cash. That is a whole wealth of experience you have never been privy to and therefore cannot comprehend and appreciate.

Genealogy / What does Germanised mean? [29]


Could you give a few examples (typical words or phrases) illustrating the Wasserpolnisch regional dialect?
Vielen Dank!

Life / Do Poles drink before noon? [95]

Unlike the penurious Brits who prefer drinking on an empty stomach because that's a cheaper high, the traditonal Polish way has been to ply visitors wtih more delicacies than they can posiblły consume. There is no rela driunking in the Western since, it is mainly zakąszanie - following each nip up with a bite-down (morsel of food).That greatly increases one's staying power in terms of alcohol consumption. Anyway, apprently you have never experienced the gościnność, cordiality and bonhomie of a Polish-Polonian family reunion. It's not just a bunch of relatives dropping round -- it is a major family event planned for well in advance. It's not even because the CIocia z Ameryki may offer to buy your teenaged son a Jaguar or Porsche...

History / Polish Officer in NATO, Col. Ryszard Kukliński. [145]

Cowards, opportunists and other assorted selfish bastards are never in short supply. Heroes and truly committed patriots are few and far between.

Travel / So where are Warsaw's slums? [30]

What about the familoki of Śląsk? Or the derelict, crumbling but still inhabited PGRs? They may nto look exactly like our American skidrow or a Latin America favela but they are slumsy all the same. Most every city in the world has such areas.

Ząbkowska Street used to be pretty bad, esp. the tunnel-like doorways leading to the court yard. There used to be a distillery there. Is it sitll there?

History / Polish Officer in NATO, Col. Ryszard Kukliński. [145]

But nothing the Soviet occupation forces and their Polish puppets did was legal or moral. Anyone who had the guts to oppose, subvert or sabotage them could only be regarded as a national hero. The cowards and opportunsits played ball to secure the perks and privileges such servility ensured.

Life / Do Poles drink before noon? [95]

Bear in mind that śniadanie at 10 or 11 might be called brunch in the US. This is not a daiily breafast before gong to work, It is when Polonian relatives are coming from America, everybody takes a day off from work to make them feel welcome, contemted, feted and at home. Thy recall old times round the tbale, chat, joke, socialise and raise a toast or two becuase...chluśniem bo uśniem!

Life / Do Poles drink before noon? [95]

Daytime drunkennes and getting hammered was not what this was about. I know many PolAms visting Poland the first time couldn't get over the high-powered gościnność at i.a. festive breakfasts at the hzomes of their Old World relatives. There were plenty of cold meats, sausage, pasztet, things in aspic, pickled mushrooms and plums, ćwikła, jaja w majonezie, , maybe herring and naturally a ruby-red nalewka in a crystal decanter poured into crytsal shot glasses. But nobody got drunk. With all that food, 2 or 3 nips didn't send anyone under the table. People used to Frosted Sugar Gloopies and other crunchy-munchy cereals, toast and doughnuts for breakfast found this to be elabroate and overpowering.