Off-Topic / Brits, Yanks slur their words? [17]

Interesting point. How has English pronunciation changed sicne 1920? Or Polish for that matter? Except for the hard £.

Food / Pierogi Dough [30]

Sour-cream pierogi dough: very easy -- 2 cups flour, 1 cup sour cream, 1 small egg and 1/4 teaspoon salt. This makes a very soft dough which does not get tough when the cooked pieiogi are fried.

Genealogy / Rygiel, Gnyp, Tomkiewicz Surnames [12]

KILAR or KIELAR: Polish adpatation of German word Keller (cellar).

Genealogy / Rygiel, Gnyp, Tomkiewicz Surnames [12]

RYGIEL: door blot, from German Riegel
GNYP: Polish version of German Knipp (craftsman using knife and pincers)
TOMKIEWICZ: patronymic nick = son of Tomek

UK, Ireland / The number of Anti-English Poles... [228]

What exactly is it that Poles dislike about the English or Britain and criticise?
In PRL a common image of the 'God save the Queen' Englishman was someone prim and proper to the core, strolling through the City in a bowler hat and with umbrella and rollled-up Times or shooting patridge in the Highlands, who would religiously stop whatever he was doing for afternoon tea, earthquakes or volcanic eruptions notwithstadning... I reckon the bachelor-night Brits descending on Kraków and Wrocław in recent years have helped change that stereotype.

Life / HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE POLAND IN 2010? [84]

The shady roundtable deal indeed let the commies off the hook for their crimes. The question remains: is a tactical agreement with a criminal regime binding indefintiely? Once the Rooskies had pulled out, all the Jaruzelskis and Kiszczaks should have been put on trial. Doing that now only evokes pity for those ageing, ailing, doddering old men with one foot in the grave.

Life / HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE POLAND IN 2010? [84]

Poland is a Jasio-ome-lately.... Prvatisation was inevitable, buudid it have to mean transferrinn most of the couitnry's prime industrial assets to foreign capital, often at a steal? Only recently has there been talk of creating a Polish capital consortium with the Pekao (or is it PKO) Bank buying out out Bank Zachodni-WBK (owned by Irish allied BAnks) and possibly joining up with insurer PZU. Back in the early '90s such a National Capital Consoritium should have been set up (before EU membership coudl stop it). It could have comrpised najor Banks (PKO, Pekao, Handlowy), PZU, Petrochemia Płocka, the Legnica copper basin, Ceghielski, shipyards, etc. (also open to private investors like Kulczyk and Solorz). Such a consortium wouuld have been able to buy up Polish flagship brands such as Żywiec, Okocim, Krakus, Wyborowa, etc. and could have acquired carmaker FSO (now owned by Urkaine).

The same holds true for decommunsation (similar to post-war Germany's de-Nazification) which should have taken place in the erarly '90s. All PZPR activists (not rank-and-file members) would have been banned from public office for at least 10 years (Kwaśniewski couldn't have stood for president!), but that was prevented by the soft-on-communism Gazeta WYbiórcza gang and Wałęsa who panicked when Bolek was exposed. Kaczyński tried that under trhe 4th Republic project of 2005 -- much too late. Long before then the commies had either wormed their way into posts of power and authrotiy (privatisation, treasury companies, private business, academia, etc.) or received fat-cat old-age pensions and died of natural causes.

Life / HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE POLAND IN 2010? [84]

The copycat mentality of Poles and other former captive nations dooms them to repeat the errors of the West. For instance fields, forests, ponds and ditches full of flimsy plastic bags that even a single bun or bunch of radishes were packed into. The siatka (net shopping bag) has disappeared although it was ecologically ahead of its time. It took nearly 2 decades for ecological, reuseable green cloth shopping bags to become widespread in Poland.

Real bread and cured meats were better under ther communists as they were less loaded with chemicals flavour enhancers, dough improvers, fake aromas, artifical this, that and the othe thing than what is sold nowadays. Poland with its one million horses (which produce the best natural fertiliser) 20 years ago could have beconme the world's ecological food suppliers; instead famrers aped ther West and cotniamnted their produce with as much chemcial pesticides and artificial fertilisers as they could lay their hands on. Many other examples exist.

The basic reasson for not thoughtfully choosing the most advantageous option was the Poles' widespread inferiority complex, the remedy for which was thought to be a West-aping backlash against the drabness of the preceding period.

News / Potheads attack police in Warsaw [40]

The peripheral costs are too great. Drink driving is bad enough, driving and operating machinery udner the influecne of various stupefiants only compoudns the porblem. Already the Polish police have had to invest loads of taxpayers' money in drug-testing devices for drivers. Society's already got enough problems without unleashing a bunch of druggies on it.

News / Potheads attack police in Warsaw [40]

The production, use and possession of illegal drugs is against the law, so why give one group of lawbreakers special privileges not aavilable to pickpockets, drunk drivers and shoplifters?

Food / Coffee Syrup - like 1883 and Torani? [11]

But surely various syrups, honey, etc. can be added to normal espresso. Of course there's the convenience factor -- you can't always have an espresso machine on hand, whilst access to boiling water is far easier.

Genealogy / Mielcarek, Rybacki, Masiakowski, Saskowski, Lawniczak, Vukzsta/Vuksta [3]

VUKŠTA: This is a Slovak surname; its meaning is uncertain; in Croatian vuk means wolf so maybe it originally traced back to Croatia and might have meant something like Wolfly or Wolfton. The Polish spelling, if the name existed in Poland, would have been Wukszta.

These look familiar. I may have already done these, but just in case – here goes again:

MIELCAREK: occupational nick = maltster in a brewery
RYBACKI: patronymic nick = fisherman’s son or topo nick from Rybaki
MASIAKOWSKI: topo nick from Masiak
SASKOWSKI: topo nick from Sasków or Saskowo (Saxonville)
£AWNICZAK: patronymic nick = assessor’s (assistant judge’s) son

Genealogy / RZARCZYNSKI finding polish friends post 2nd world war [4]

It must be Żarczyński.

Genealogy / Laburchewski & Schidlowski [4]

The names are Polish but written the German way. There could me countless reasons for that which no-one can even guess it, if the names are all you've got to go on.

Surnames are not the same as nationality or ethnic awareness. There are thousands of people named Nowak in Germany who consider thesmelves pure Germans and there are many people in Poland named Schultz, sometimes spelt the Polish way Szulc, who would be insutled if you called them German.

My analysis is purely lingusitc, focuses on the form and structure of the name alone and does not venture into genealogy or family hsitory.

History / Miracle of the Vistula 80th anniversary? [56]

The Polish leader Prince Henry the Pious was killed at the Battle of Legnica but the clash also overextenmded the supply lines and spent the forces of the invading Mongolisns and effectviely prevented their thrtust into the hearrt of Western Europe.

What's a decade in the face of human history? Seriously though, it was 90th. Blame it on the typo imps imbedded in my computer.

The Solidarity revolution led to the dismantling of the iron curtain, put an end to the cold-war nuclear threat that had plagued the Free World since the end of WW2 and brought about the collapse of the USSR, the whole Soviet bloc of captive nations, the Warsaw Pact and Comecon. Isn't that enough?

What's the point of trying to explain away any acheivements the Polish nation has contributed to mankind?

Genealogy / Wnek/Ostojska Polish surnames [10]

WNEK: archaic form of wnuk (grandson)

OSTOJSKI: topo ncic from Ostoja or Ostoje (mainstay, stronghold)

Genealogy / Laburchewski & Schidlowski [4]

LABURCHEWSKI (?): Looks to be a phonetic rendering of possibly £abuszewski (topo nick from Labusz or £abuchy); pershaps the ‘r’’ got somehow inserted?
Other possibilities: Labryszewski, Laborzewski or Labuszewski (the latter a topo nick from Labuszewo in Masuria). If this were a proper German transcription, shouldn’t it have read: Laburtschewski.

SZYD£OWSKI: Schidlowski is the correct German phonetic transcription of Szydłowski, topo nick from Szydłów or Szydłowo. A szydlo is an awl, hence Awlton, Alwville or maybe a British-county-style Awlshire.

Genealogy / Knew I was Hungarian, but my DNA came back Polish? [23]

I don't know much about DNA ethnicity tests, but from a hysterical and cultural point of view Poles and Hungarians have been traditional friends over the ages. Polak, Węgier dwa bratanki,i do szabli i do szklanki (Poles and Hungarians fight and drink side by side) goes a well-known saying.

The Carpathian Mts did not prevent a fair amount of interaction between Poland and Hungary – merchants, itinerant beggars, pilgrims travelling to religious shrines and assorted travellers, even wounded soldiers nursed back to health who decided to settle – all played a part in the two nations' interaction. When Bathory Istvan (Stefan Batory), the Prince of Transylvania) became king of Poland, he brought with him his courtiers, customs, etc. During WW2 secret couriers regularly travelled between Poland and Hungary with messages for Polish forces in the West... Invariably, families arose and children were born out of such inter-ethnic liaisons over the generations...

Hope this helps a bit.

Food / Pierogi Dough [30]

Many cooks use a whole egg, not just the yolk. The white acts as a dough-binder.

News / Polish Policeman shoots down a foreigner in Warsaw [300]

How can a Nigerian be an AfroAmerican?

Food / Coffee Syrup - like 1883 and Torani? [11]

What is the point of having coffeee syrup? Anyone who doesn't want to brew ground coffee the normal way can use instant.

News / Komorowski for complex-ridden Poles? [94]

Selling off the country's last industrial assets and turning Poland into a land of hirelings on a foreign payroll affects all Poles. Foreign capital channels the bulk of itsi profits to its home countries and reinvests only the bare minimum needed to keep things running. In case of war (and that can never be ruled out at some future date), having all banks, factories, mines and steelmills in foreign hands may not be such a good thing. But even in peacetime that strips the natives of a psycholgocially important element -- pride of ownership. Is the nearly total lack of Polish-owned industry, designs, logos and innovations a good for the national soul?

Genealogy / Last name Mesje [8]

For information on Jewish surnames please contact Mr Yale Reisner at Warsaw's Jewish Historical Institute: secretary@jhi.pl