History / Polish pirates [58]


So are Serbians - but they aren't recognisably Polish. Except maybe to Crow.


There is no more a 'Slavic people' than there is a 'Germanic people' or a 'Latin people'.


Who are obscure by the mists of time.

Language / Short Polish<->English translations [1049]

Or "Mam ogomna ochota na Ciebie bo jestem zboczeniec i ty wyglądasz jak papież z peruką".

Works every time...

History / Polish pirates [58]

A pirate walks into a bar and the bartender says, "Hey, I haven't seen you in a while. What happened, you look terrible!"

"What do you mean?" the pirate replies, "I'm fine."
The bartender says, "But what about that wooden leg? You didn't have that before."
"Well," says the pirate, "We were in a battle at sea and a cannon ball hit my leg but the surgeon fixed me up, and I'm fine, really."

"Yeah," says the bartender, "But what about that hook? Last time I saw you, you had both hands."
"Well," says the pirate, "We were in another battle and we boarded the enemy ship. I was in a sword fight and my hand was cut off but the surgeon fixed me up with this hook, and I feel great, really."

"Oh," says the bartender, "What about that eye patch? Last time you were in here you had both eyes."
"Well," says the pirate, "One day when we were at sea, some birds were flying over the ship. I looked up, and one of them shat in my eye."

"So?" replied the bartender, "what happened? You couldn't have lost an eye just from some bird *****"
"Well," says the pirate, "I really wasn't used to the hook yet."

History / Polish pirates [58]

Except there isn't really very much to say about them - and neither the ethnicity nor the geography correspond to anything recognisably Polish.

History / How much Poles trust to France? [107]


Marie Curie is Marie Curie. The Skłodowska bit is not in general use outside PL.


Pretty popular in PL back in the day, and has a couple of hundred members now.

History / Polish pirates [58]


It does however make them uninteresting and relatively undocumented compared to the swashbuckling water pikeys of fifteen hundred years later.

History / Polish pirates [58]


I wonder how many of those were buccaneers on the Spanish Main...

History / Polish pirates [58]


You're quite wrong here. They consolidated as a nation from various existing groups from that period onwards with the process perhaps having started before. The Tenth Century group you mention was (very arguably) the beginning of this, and part of a non-linear process that continued until a few years into the Second Republic. The process took centuries.


Centuries prior to the heyday of piracy. Of course you can say piracy started with the Sea Peoples (not Polish either, LOL), or before, but the term 'piracy' has very different meanings in different periods. BTW, I did know the period Gibbon's D&F covers. I wouldn't be so quick to rely on it, either.


Don't bother.


Yes it does, rather.

History / Polish pirates [58]

I think the great heyday of piracy, from the Sixteenth to the late Eighteenth Centuries is a bit more relevant. Poles didn't exist in the period Gibbon was writing about.

History / Polish pirates [58]

In the great days of piracy, pirates could come from any nationality but were loyal to none. Unless they were buccaneers, who were 'loyal' only to whatever country was protecting them. Colour, class and nationality meant nothing to them. If any of them had been Polish, it would have been irrelevant to them and to others.

There may have been Poles among them, but my own feeling is that if any had been from Poland, the numbers would have been small. Most pirates were people who for whatever reaon had ended up in the Western Atlantic or the Barbary coast. Not the Baltic.

News / Donald Tusk's Government of Poland Continues to Oppress Poles [161]


There is no 'Serbian question'. The place is culturally, strategically, historically and economically irrelevant. It barely exists except in the minds of its residents and those of its neighbours that it bullies.

News / Donald Tusk's Government of Poland Continues to Oppress Poles [161]

Given the events of the 90s together with their petulant behaviour over Kosovan independence and their strategic irrelevance, it seems Poland has every reason to ignore them.

News / Donald Tusk's Government of Poland Continues to Oppress Poles [161]

It may not be what Crow wants to hear, but people, either in Poland or elsewhere, don't think of Serbia at all. It isn't a major economy. it isn't in a strategic location, it isn't in an alliance with anybody. In short it is irrelevant to world affairs.

It only really comes to people's attention when they start murdering their neighbours in Srebrenica or Kosovo, and then it is dealt with quickly and effectively.

UK, Ireland / Does everyone know about countess Markiewicz? Polish connection. [16]

Yes. They use the term Episcopalian in Scotland. The Church of Ireland tends to have huge, locked and largely empty buildings but apparently is having something of a revival, especially among young families.

UK, Ireland / Does everyone know about countess Markiewicz? Polish connection. [16]

A remarkable person. Her sister too.


Not at all. Quite common in fact.


In the south, there are protestants in all walks of life and at the moment quite a high rate of conversions to Anglicanism. The North is somewhat polarised.

Her life was an amazing story. On a side note (a Russia rather than a Poland thing), am I right in thinking that the most important part of the Russian crown jewels, the Cap of Monomakh, spent a few years in a cardboard box in someone's attic in Dublin?