News / Exorcist monthly goes on sale in Poland [17]


Very true.


That much they haven't. No religion has yet proved itself. I would be very happy to see that happen and don't mind whether it's Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Animism, Voodoo, Graeco-Roman religion, Scientology, Christian Science, Zoroastrianism or Wicca, Satanism I'll pass on.

Love / Chastity rings in Poland - bad news for 'dziwkarze' [42]

I don't see those trashy rings catching on in Poland, and if any young person gets them, I doubt whether it would mean anything more than an outward show.

Travel / The definitive list of things to do and see in Warsaw. [11]

This pirate ship place doesn't look anything special except for the live music- just a suburban pub and seems a bit out of town, however you should visit Chinatown - about 20 bars in a small area behind Nowy Swiat 22. Some of them are 24 hours. There's another complex of bars at Fort Mokotow which are worth a visit.

Zakaski Przekaski on Krakowskie Przedmiescie always has a good crowd spilling out on the pavement late at night. For eating Szweik in plac Konstytucji is very popular.

Life / Poland and every aspect..... Please help me learn and understand the realities? [108]


Tell me about it! Mind you, a lady is only ever over 21...


There was a thread about that once. The oldest, I remember, is San Marino and England had two (albeit briefly) during the interregnum. There was at least one other.

News / Characterizing Poland's political parties [33]

They do, however unlike in Poland they usually actually stay in the same party and engage in rather less infighting.

Life / Do Poles drink before noon? [95]


Check out the thread title and your own first post, and don't be so bloody rude.


A bit tricky in a third floor apartment or a gated estate, no?

Life / Poland and every aspect..... Please help me learn and understand the realities? [108]


4th or 5th oldest, but still quite old.


A lady prefers to get flowers on St Whatever's day than have everyone in the neighbourhood know she's 48.


Written in stone !

News / Characterizing Poland's political parties [33]

PO - centre-right or liberal conservative
SLD - ditto, opportunists who've still got some residual tribal support from trade unionists and ex-communists
PP - A political minnow. What SLD should be if they had any integrity
PiS - left wing fiscal policies, extreme right-wing social policies. Lost support by siding with openly neo-fascist politicians and the Lepper gang
PSL - Agrarian conservative who've still got some residual tribal support among farmers and those who respect them for their long tradition and reasonable (for Polish party politics) behaviour

Solidarty Poland - an irrelevant political minnow with dodgy leadership who will probably pick up some disaffected PiS and PO voters
Ruch Palikota - Opportunists who are very good at picking up votes from disaffectd former SLD and PO voters

A two-party system like England or the US would be great for Poland, but it would never last. It would split up first into political camps and then people like Ziobro with an eye on the main chance would start forming new parties.

UK, Ireland / Polish aversion to the truth about UK [10]

They've had to defend themselves so often that the habit doesn't die easily.

Mind you, if they didn't need to defend themselves from eejits there wouldn't be a problem, would there?

Life / Do Poles drink before noon? [95]


Big events dont happen that often, and as said here already, a visit from relatives can be a once in a lifetime thing. Also, most people in Poland don't actually have relatives who went off to distant continents and those who do don't necessarily feel quite as sentimental about them as some would like to think.

Day to day, morning drinking is strictly for army officers (though that is stopping) and problem drinkers.

Travel / Poland Warsaw Airport to Train [26]

By train. there is a station inside the airport. You buy the ticket from a machine which has English instructions.

Life / Poland needs more immigrants and their children - which nationalities are the best? [518]

There is only one race. No such thing as differences in character based on ethnicity etc. Nurture rather than nature. I've stated my point of view, perhaps you should tell us yours, if you feel otherwise.

By the way, you may find this interesting.
darkademic.co.uk/articles/refutation-of-racism

Life / Poland needs more immigrants and their children - which nationalities are the best? [518]

Spurious pictures of Albinos (by the way, albinism occurs throughout the human race as well as other species) don't help your argument. In fact they weaken it. Greater variations within the human genome occur inside groups you would no doubt consider a 'race'.

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

Especially in the second (or even third) line of building, courtyards behind courtyards. There's even one like that in Mariensztat, just a stone's throw from the presidential palace. There's also one near the Chopin Museum where many of the flats haven't been decorated since they were patched up at the end of the war.

The city is trying to get communal tenants out of places like that sothey can realise some of the value and provide more modern social housing. Unfortunately there's quite a lot of resistance.

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


Zabkowska has been cleaned up at great cost, but the warrens of dodgy courtyards still exist in that area (and by the way, the distillery is still there). One thing that's happening is that district hot water is being rolled out round there, paid for by the EU.

If you want slums, you'll often find them cheek by jowl with posher apartments dotted around Srodmiescie. Communal flats that people aren't paying for and in buildings that aren't looked after.

Someone mentioned Wola. There are some dodgy bits between Mlynarska and Wolska however I wouldn't call them slums - the housing stock is actually quite good.

There are some twentieth century housing estates dotted round town that are pretty bad - again, very scruffy communal tenants and shared bathrooms. There are some buildings like that even at the bottom of Zoliborz Oficerskie that resist gentrification because of the neighbours.

Life / Do Poles drink before noon? [95]

I suspect rarely, though if the kieliszki are being handed round it seems churlish to refuse.

Life / Poland needs more immigrants and their children - which nationalities are the best? [518]

Your reply is quite funny, but ignores science in favour of prejudice. There is only one race and all humans are descended from a common ancestor. Skin colour is merely adaptation to environment.

I remember all the fuss over a rather silly American book called The Bell Curve a few years ago. One of the book's premises was about variation in IQ level according to skin colour. It completely ignored the fact that there are greater variations withing the same skin colour group.

Fans of scientific racism often try to mould the fact to fit their prejudice, but in the end prejudice is all it is.

When the BBC did DNA tests on a group of volunteers several years ago the results were surprising. A group of people from the UK, all white skinned English turned out to have amazingly diverse heritage.

There is only one race. The human race.

Life / Do Poles drink before noon? [95]

A quick correction. The final few words of my last post should read ''due to a fear the town drinks would come''.

Swype does that sometimes.

Life / Do Poles drink before noon? [95]

Miners in England were lobbying for pubs in pit villages to open in the morning for people who came of shift work. Their requests were mostly denied due to a gear the town drinks would show up.

Life / Poland needs more immigrants and their children - which nationalities are the best? [518]

Happily. I wonder if he's going to hang around hospitals telling parents that they can't have a bone marrow donor for their kids even of they aren't of mixed heritage. There are far greater variations in DNA among groups with the same skin colour than between groups with different skin colour.

As I said but you obviously failed to understand, we are one species, one race.

History / An American studying medicine in the PRL 1978-1985: my story [142]

Which is exactly my point. Why are you lamely attempting to argue and hijack an otherwise interesting thread?

Life / Do Poles drink before noon? [95]

When I used to teach Colonels here they used to have a toast (without a popitka) at 9am, but no more than a 50-ka. Mind you, by Friday lunchtime some of them could hardly stand - it would probably have been a good time for a foreign army to invade.

All that's gone, hopefully.

History / An American studying medicine in the PRL 1978-1985: my story [142]


This reminds me of a story that a friend tells. He's a Polish man who lived in France for many years. He was sitting in a bar having a drink on his way home and eavesdropping on three French guys talking about a football match that the Polish team had won (obviously this was back in the 70s). One of the Frenchmen said "So where is Poland, is it in Russia?" The second Frenchman said "I thought it was part of Germany". The third Frenchman said "I think you're both wrong. It's much much nearer. There are two Polish guys in my factory and they come to work every day by bike".


In order to explain something, you have to understand it. If you check the thread you'll see that I was right all along and that Boletus' assessment concurs with mine. The word came into English a long, long time ago.

News / Who controls Gazeta Wyborcza?? [216]


No no no. There's another thread for riddles, so come on, spill the beans, precisely which ethnic group do you mean.

Life / Do Poles drink before noon? [95]

Not really just Anglo-Saxon. In Saudi Arabia they tend not to drink beer for breakfast either. Mind you, the Anglo Saxons lived over a thousand years ago so who knows what they thought.

Here in Poland, daytime drunkenness is frowned upon nowadays - tramps, dole chavs and people on PGRs might do it but woe betide anyone who comes to work drunk.

News / Who controls Gazeta Wyborcza?? [216]

If it isn't Belarussians, who is it?

Life / Poland needs more immigrants and their children - which nationalities are the best? [518]


Are you sure you understand the meaning of the word species?

History / An American studying medicine in the PRL 1978-1985: my story [142]

Very true. There are also the people of Wilamowice who speak (the older ones anyway) Wymysorys. Mr Gierek, by the way, had a British boss for a while which have him the habit of pronouncing certain technical mining words with a Fife accent.

History / An American studying medicine in the PRL 1978-1985: my story [142]

Exactly. A very different kettle of fish.

History / An American studying medicine in the PRL 1978-1985: my story [142]

We were, however you were not.