News / Sikorski or Komorowski for president? [32]








Your post says so much about you - none of it good. You can write as much hatred as you like as an immigrant thousands of miles away. Fortunately for us in Poland, actual election results show that the Polish voters are more sensible.

News / Sikorski or Komorowski for president? [32]


And what? The story is stale news. Every other feeble racist who posts here has burbled on about that one.

How does it relate to President-to-be Sikorsky, and the death of Ciemnogrod?

News / Sikorski or Komorowski for president? [32]


What makes you think that?


Presumably you think that's a conspiracy too.

News / Sikorski or Komorowski for president? [32]

Nah. Shapeshifting aliens with forged birth Hawaiian birth certificates. Join the dots, sheeple.

News / Sikorski or Komorowski for president? [32]

Well, millions of us here in Poland choose to read it, and there are plenty of alternatives.

News / Sikorski or Komorowski for president? [32]

Though they are a fair indicator. They can only be manipulated by a few points and the latest poll I've seen was published by GW which is respectable.

A Sikorski/Tusk administration could do great things - and at least the ducks of Ciemnogrod are already consigned to the dustbin of history.

News / Sikorski or Komorowski for president? [32]

Except the Poles' polls roundly prefer Sikorski.

History / Lord Conway's rule and Poland in 1772 [35]

I assume it's 'On Heroes', though it might be the 'Critical Essays'. He writes about it in the context of Prussia - he was no admirer of the Second Rzeczpospolita, to say the least. I'll see if I can find a reference.

If I remember, he wrote critically about the first partition though said (very much in his style - in the same essay he called the Tsarina of Russia ‘mainly a mass of esurient oil’) that "‘deliverance from anarchy, pestilence, famine and pigs eating your dead body was a manifest advantage for Poland and the one way of saving Europe from war".

There was also an essay which touched on Chopin's early life and quite a bit about earlier history, especially August II Mocny.

Food / Eating Kielbasa - how do you cook yours? [119]

Z.Zybert

If you don't have a sausage machine (or want to stuff sausage skins) it might be better to buy them. There's quite a bit of skill in making sausages, especially the European kind. You can grill or fry them first with onions and heat the up when you're there, or take the kind that just needs slicing thinly - maybe Krakowska.

History / Lord Conway's rule and Poland in 1772 [35]

It's why Pitt was such a controversial genius - have you read Carlyle on the 2nd republic?

History / Lord Conway's rule and Poland in 1772 [35]


They were certainly Anglophiles, though in King Stanisław August's case Scotophile would be more accurate. I'm trying to remember the Latin nickname he was given in Britain - it was quite apposite.

History / Lord Conway's rule and Poland in 1772 [35]


I can also say what Britain's policy is. Though since I'm not the Premier or the Foreign Secretary nobody would care. In 1772, Lord Conway was a backbencher with a role in domestic affairs and the Governor of Jersey.


I should hope so too!

As an aside I wonder what Poland's policy towards Britain was at that time?

History / Lord Conway's rule and Poland in 1772 [35]


I'm not sure the Czechs or Lithuanians would agree with that. In any case the UK is an island whose traditional alliances have been with countries far away - that has shaped perceptions of European countries who more often than not have dragged them into problems.

UK, Ireland / The Gessler restaurant empire expands to London [21]

U Kucharzy is good.

History / Lord Conway's rule and Poland in 1772 [35]


Probably true but what's he supposed to have "ruled", except the island of Jersey and that briefly?

UK, Ireland / The Gessler restaurant empire expands to London [21]

They do a lot of publicity and promotion therefore attracting interest and are noticeably aggressive in the way they deal with rivals. There are also ethical issues around some of the family's other interests which have attracted criticism in Warsaw, not least in the media. I'm not up-to-date on those issues, but go to their restaurants from time to time for work reasons.

UK, Ireland / The Gessler restaurant empire expands to London [21]

Having said that the external catering they do is expensive but always looks good and impresses.

UK, Ireland / The Gessler restaurant empire expands to London [21]


I can say the same and prefer other places.


I've done quite well myself in business by understanding quality and value. At the Gessler places, value and taste sadly lag behind others in the same price range. She established the brand when there was very little competition - now people's expectations are higher and Gessler places just leave people feeling disappointed.

MacDonald's have "succeeded" too but I wouldn't recommend eating there.

It does seem like someone has a vested interest...

UK, Ireland / The Gessler restaurant empire expands to London [21]

Very 'specific' decor and variety over quality. If people really want to spend so much and show others that they've got the spending power then it's probably what they want, though there are better choices.

Consistency of quality and service are issues too. Plus some absolutely bizarre set menus.

There are certainly good restaurants in Warsaw but Gessler is an overstretched brand of chain restaurants with a big marketing budget.

UK, Ireland / The Gessler restaurant empire expands to London [21]


Quite.

Have you been to any of the restaurants? Kitsch in the extreme and disappointing compared to almost all others in the same price range.

Language / Poltran? (the free online Polish-English dictionary) - where's it gone? [48]


The ideals of Esperanto (and volapuk, ido, interlingua and the rest) are sound and worthy still of consideration. Language however is notoriously difficult to manipulate, (see Chomsky, Krashen even more so) and English has taken the role of an internacia interlingvon.

And 10-12 mil vortojn doesn't make for a huge corpus of literature.

Food / Herb used in Polish rosol (chicken soup)? [88]

With chicken is the kind I've usually had.

A friend, who's a farmer here serves the bigger pieces of chicken afterwards like the Scots sometimes do with Cock-a-leekie. He doesn't put leek in though, but uses more pietruszka than is normal.

Food / Herb used in Polish rosol (chicken soup)? [88]

Somehow it sounds better if it's called broth!

I wonder if the beef one isn't so popular in Poland because they use the bones to make galaret? A good beef one needs to be gelatinous, but here the jelly is used elsewhere.

Food / Herb used in Polish rosol (chicken soup)? [88]


Check the packets of ready-made and restaurant menus; they all say rosół. In Russian, rasol just means stock - that is the derivation of the Polish word. In English Beef or Chicken Consomme.

Though rosół z kury comes to mind quicker in Poland than rosół wołowy, due to most easily available ingredients.

Food / Herb used in Polish rosol (chicken soup)? [88]


It can be rosół z kury or with beef, rosół wołowy

In PL it's usually 'z kury', I prefer wołowy.

Life / Polish TV licence (abonament) - almost no-one I know pays [36]

I never had a TV licence in the UK and certainly not here. There's very little they can do except harass people.

Classifieds / Poland Tartan Army [19]


They can drink but not smoke. And believe me, some of them really drink.

Classifieds / Poland Tartan Army [19]

Sometimes I do just that. I've never figured out though if they're not allowed to smoke or just not allowed to buy cigs.

Food / Herb used in Polish rosol (chicken soup)? [88]


I agree. Though a friend here in Poland is very emphatic that stews should have them and soups should not.

With cabbage soup, juniper berries work well - so does allspice which sees to be used a lot here.

Life / Why do gays dislike Wojciech Cejrowski, travel writer? [18]

Not so much a campaign, and not so much gay people. Cejrowski, probably with an eye on book sales, often deliberately offends. He is a person who courts strong opinion and thrives on publicity.

He is certainly outspoken about gay people, though he himself is a practising homosexual.