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Posts by jonni  

Joined: 27 Nov 2007 / Male ♂ 		Last Post: 9 Mar 2011
Threads: Total: 16 / In This Archive: 11
Posts: Total: 2475 / In This Archive: 1607 		From: Warszawa
Speaks Polish?: tak

Displayed posts: 1618 / page 20 of 54
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jonni   
28 Oct 2010
USA, Canada / Polish Food - 40 flavors of pierogies in the US [113]

Don't know why Poles are so precious about this.

Poland isn't exactly the first country to suffer from tenously associated food being described as authentic or traditional.

Yes, and pierogi are by no means exclusive to Poland - they exist throughout eastern and central Europe. There are however quite a few traditional flavours. Personally I can think of a couple of dozen types that are available in Warsaw. Almond and honey pierogis are good. My favourite are Pierogi Lwowskie, filled with something similar to Bolognese sauce.

On a similar note, I notice there's a new restaurant in Warsaw called "Ye Goode Foode". Sounds grizzly.
jonni   
28 Oct 2010
Life / Tricks & Dodges (The Poles are nothing if not inventive) [26]

The phone booth trick was to hold a recorder to the earpiece when you put in your money. back in the days of pulse-tone technology, the earpiece would play a small "blip" noise,

I worked for BT at the time that was happening. The trick was to get voicemail, which meant you were given a free digital tonepad to pick your messages up from a non-digital phone (which nearly all phones were in those days. The tonepads were also on sale in some electronics stores.

If you used the tonepad in an old telephone box, you didn't have to put money in, and could make international calls. The worst offenders were students from overseas, and paradoxically BT staff, who all knew about it and all had a tonepad.

You're right that it hasn't worked since about 1993 - when I left in 92, they were rushing to fix the situation.

There was also a huge amount of cellphone cloning in pre-SIM card days - that could be done using a paperclip and a bit of tinfoil, by anyone who knew the serial number and mobile number of a phone. Pre-1985, the old 'system 4' carphones relied on honesty for the billing (when you picked them up, the connection went straight to an operator who asked for the number and timed the call), and since they were mostly used by businessmen, honesty was by no means universal.
jonni   
24 Oct 2010
Life / How Long Before Poland Has Its 'Dumbest Generation'? [84]

I mean, with programmes like this, who needs conspiracy theories?

Exactly.

TV does play a big part in the dumbing down of society - and Polish TV is pretty dreadful. In many ways TV is the new opiate of the masses. At least I don't own one.
jonni   
22 Oct 2010
News / WHY IS POLAND STILL GIVEN THE COLD SHOULDER? [197]

Hmm.

Today I took a Polish friend in the UK to a temp agency, since he's new to my city and needs work. The guy had worked for me for five years in Poland, and always worked in offices. His English is fluent. But as soon as the receptionist heard his Polish accent, she gave him a card with the address of their industrial branch.

Amazing this still happens.
jonni   
17 Oct 2010
Love / Polish girls fall for Indian guys ? [217]

Just how do you hunt women exactly? With fishnets?

Perhaps that's why they prefer Poland's 0.001% pool of available black men.
jonni   
17 Oct 2010
Love / Polish girls fall for Indian guys ? [217]

Sheer comedy! Found a woman yet Jarnowa? Or do they still flee from the sight of you to (in one of the whitest countries in the world) the embrace of men from as far away as possible?
jonni   
17 Oct 2010
Work / I'M SO SURPRISED BY THIS SALARY FOR IBM in WROCLAW 3000 ZL gross [135]

Hardly. You can easily get a room for 500-600PLN a month.

There comes a point in most people's lives when they want much more than a room.

but heck, if you can't live on 250 pounds a month after the bills are paid,

Many have to, but few want to.

Personally, 4-5000zl net in PL would be comfortable but not rich. Living in one's own country on low wages is bad enough - living abroad and having to scrimp must be very demotivating.
jonni   
16 Oct 2010
History / Star shaped symbol on Polish Eagle? [22]

Zygmunt Kaminski.

AFAIK, he was the Bishop of Płock.

But here's nothing about meaning of this stars.

My feeling is that there isn't any specific meaning - and it's just a design thing.
jonni   
16 Oct 2010
History / Star shaped symbol on Polish Eagle? [22]

This has been done to death here before. They didn't. The bug-eyed green aliens from Alpha Centauri might have though. :-)

The 'stars' on the Polish eagle just looks like a heraldic device. Either that or aliens put them there.
jonni   
16 Oct 2010
History / Star shaped symbol on Polish Eagle? [22]

But the pentagram is by no means a strictly Masonic symbol

Not very Masonic at all, except as a minor symbol of a temporary degree in some American lodges. Not used in Polish freemasonry today, and pre-war Polish freemasonry followed the French model, which doesn't use pentagrams.

influential Freemasons in the Polish leadership.

There was Pilsudski's brother and Rydz Smigly, among others, howerver masons don't go around "embedding" things - except in books by Dan Brown, maybe.
jonni   
16 Oct 2010
UK, Ireland / The more subtle differences: Ireland/Britain v Poland [310]

The flag of Poland is rather bland in appearance in comparison to UK & Irish flags

Not sure about the Irish tricolour, but if you change the coulours of the Polish flag, it stops being Polish; but if you change the colours of the Union Jack, it is still recognisably the Union Jack.
jonni   
15 Oct 2010
UK, Ireland / The more subtle differences: Ireland/Britain v Poland [310]

wouldn't the castles here have been destroyed because of feudal wars (for which the castles were built to defend against) than in Britain?

Of course. Just as hundreds (if not thousands) in the UK were dismantled after the Restoration to prevent them being used. Most have still left substantial ruins, and the stone from the depredations usually still remains in nearby buildings.
jonni   
15 Oct 2010
UK, Ireland / The more subtle differences: Ireland/Britain v Poland [310]

But there were people here before people started calling themselves 'Polish' as an identity for thousands of years. How is the U.K. older than that?

What??!?

I mean the large number of 17th and 18th century buildings that were erected in the UK and still survive, not pre-slavic/romano-british stuff!
jonni   
15 Oct 2010
UK, Ireland / The more subtle differences: Ireland/Britain v Poland [310]

And they have been treated with care and on show for the world.....But to be honest Id give it all back if we could have the Bayeux Tapestry back that was woven by English women! But I bet you didnt know that!

Sounds like most of the North of England :D

Agree 100%

We have engineered the conditions to maintain these artifacts...otherwise they would have perished!

I mean all the stuff that went from the UK to America. I'm sure they're looking after it all nicely, and we have plenty to spare, but still - people would be surprised at the extent.

Was she a sculptor? Her names ring a bell..

Yes
jonni   
15 Oct 2010
UK, Ireland / The more subtle differences: Ireland/Britain v Poland [310]

There are loads and loads

Not that many compared to the British Isles, which have a huge number.
Though my point is about historic buildings in general. Not just the odd ruined castle or preserved palace, but the whole built environment, which in PL is generally far newer than in the UK.

i still think you've been in Warsaw too long.

If only! I haven't bee there for ages :-(
jonni   
15 Oct 2010
UK, Ireland / The more subtle differences: Ireland/Britain v Poland [310]

to save water.

The reason was due to public health rules in some big cities, about not mixing hot and cold water. Though the rules have now changed, not everyone has switched to mixer taps, although individual taps are increasingly rare.

I'd suggest the thing about the English is they were just better at doing it than a lot of others, who would have done it if they had had the chance. name any major power that hasn't done it?

Exactly.
jonni   
15 Oct 2010
UK, Ireland / The more subtle differences: Ireland/Britain v Poland [310]

Yeah? I wouldn't be sure about that.

I would. The ones in the Czech Republic are largely later buildings, and Lichtenstein (pop. 35,000, 60sqm) hardly counts.

In Ireland the place is littered with portal dolmens, ring forts and sites like Newgrange.
In England you have Stone Henge and other megalithic structures but here it's not shown so much.

Yes. The British Isles (and people forget northern Scotland in this respect) have a huge amount of pre-Roman remains.
In Poland there are some, but only some, and a tragic thing that happened was stone circles being destroyed in the 1930s by the order of village priests. Something similar happened in Spain.
jonni   
15 Oct 2010
UK, Ireland / The more subtle differences: Ireland/Britain v Poland [310]

there are quite a few castles around here,

And by far the greatest concentration in Europe are in the British Isles.

You have been living in Warsaw too long.

Warsaw conversely is the most likely place in Poland to find large scale 18th century neo-classical buildings.

My point is that Poland has some interesting and historical buildings, but really not many, and the best ones tend to be well known. Britain is groaning under the weight of them.
jonni   
15 Oct 2010
UK, Ireland / The more subtle differences: Ireland/Britain v Poland [310]

I agree. And more on topic is a particulardifference between UK and Poland. That being the huge cultural, artistic and architectural heritage of the 17th and 18th centuries (or before) in the UK and the dearth thereof in Poland.

I'm sitting in the UK now, in northern England, in an area with heavy industrial development, heavily bombed during WW2 and nothing particularly special. Yet within a quarter a mile there's a ruined medieval castle, a Saxon church and a handful of five hundred year-old houses. Not to mention several palaces in the area and beautiful Georgian Squares. Also the permanent colections of works by Barbara hepworth and Henry Moore, both local, just down the road.

In Poland there isn't much of this at all, and never was.