The BEST Guide to POLAND
Unanswered  |  Archives [3] 
  
Account: Guest

Posts by Bobko  

Joined: 13 Mar 2017 / Male ♂ 		Last Post: 19 Dec 2025
Threads: Total: 28 / Live: 24 / Archived: 4
Posts: Total: 3029 / Live: 2953 / Archived: 76 		From: New York
Speaks Polish?: A
Interests: reading, camping

Displayed posts: 2977 / page 42 of 100
sort: Latest first   Oldest first   |
Bobko   
29 Jul 2024
Feedback / Who deserves to inherit Polish Forums? [344]

Yes, cheers for PolAm - but these guys worked for twenty years...

They deserve more than just giving it to somebody for free.

I appreciate PAK's offer, but I would love more for this to belong to nobody and be supported by its readers/writers.
Bobko   
29 Jul 2024
Feedback / Who deserves to inherit Polish Forums? [344]

one-time-little-bit won't help in the long run..

The admin tells me it's not so much - $200 a month.

$2,400 a year to keep this place belonging to all of us.

Don't have to say goodbye to everyone.

Don't have to live with JR owning this forum (which would be the death of it anyway).

It's not much. One guy with money, could easily close a quarter of that, for the price of his annual news subscriptions. Others can send $5-10 or whatever makes sense.
Bobko   
29 Jul 2024
Feedback / Who deserves to inherit Polish Forums? [344]

The owners changed the announcement a bit, perhaps in reaction to our bantering here.

Now there's this:

"We don't want to ask users for raising money, but if we by any chance receive a certain amount through sponsorship, patronage, or advertising that would cover the professional administrating and moderating cost for another year or more, we'll be able to assign a trusted person to the role and continue the site as is."

ADMIN: PLEASE POST PAYPAL LINK!

I'll send you a little bit.
Bobko   
27 Jul 2024
Feedback / Who deserves to inherit Polish Forums? [344]

it's not my decision...

They said they want it to keep going. They're just tired.

Don't go, I'm sure something will be worked out. You, AntV and Kania are my best buds here, along with Grunnie and Novi.

In the end, if it closes - I would even miss Paulina.

Pawian and Lena too, for sure. And Maf, and CMS, and Ironside... everybody!

But still not JohnnyReb.
Bobko   
27 Jul 2024
Feedback / Who deserves to inherit Polish Forums? [344]

gonna miss you guys and gals

Where you going man?

Hopefully they can hand it over in one piece to someone... don't say goodbye - I will cry!
Bobko   
27 Jul 2024
Feedback / Who deserves to inherit Polish Forums? [344]

The owners are selling the website, as explained in a little banner on the top left corner of the main page.

First of all - an enormous thanks to them, for doing this for all of us over the past years. A special place is reserved in heaven, for the people that could police this wild forum.

I think their work allowed hundreds of people to discover their ancestry, and allowed thousands of others to make friends or find work.

Adrien's funeral was another instance where this platform played a big role, as I'm sure was the case in many other instances.

So big round of applause to the owners!

Now regarding my proposal. I think if it's a reasonable sum ($10-30K), the existing members might be able to foot the bill. But that doesn't mean the website should go to whoever has the funds.

I think the forum should go to who loves it most, and the others should help with finances.
Bobko   
26 Jul 2024
History / Pol-Shorpy Photo Thread [950]

An album of 100 colorised photos

These photos are crazy. Wow!

Regarding staged photos... it's not even the fact that a guy is standing sheepishly with a pistol - it's the heroic camera man!
Bobko   
25 Jul 2024
News / Poland's demographic, migration & fertility rate disaster [34]

@Alien

Connected with working too much, or not having any place to live, is urbanization.

The rate of urbanization is the best predictor of what will happen to birth rates.

When people move from the regions to the big cities, birth rates always plummet - without exception.

Cities are not optimized for starting a family.

Religion doesn't play a very meaningful role, despite what may seem.
Bobko   
25 Jul 2024
News / Poland's demographic, migration & fertility rate disaster [34]

@pawian

What's also surprising to me is that the supposed laziest people are the ones that work the most. The champions are Poles, Russians, and Greeks.

Portuguese also work a ton.

In America there is also the stereotype of the lazy/sleepy Mexican. Then you look at how much the average Mexican works, and it becomes clear they are one of the hardest workers in the world.

Why do you think this happened?

Because you robbed Ukraine of its demographic future? Haha
Bobko   
25 Jul 2024
News / Poland's demographic, migration & fertility rate disaster [34]

I just read a piece about Poland's demographic woes.

During these first six months of the year, Poland's birth rate has dropped by more than 9% compared to the same period in 2023. Poland's effective TFR is now 1.1 births per woman. One of the lowest in the entire world....

Some reasons for this, in charts below.

In brief, the reasons are that Poles work more than almost anyone else (Russians too), and don't have anywhere to live.

An absolutely insane percentage of Poles live at home with their parents well into their mid 30s.

I bet millions of Ukrainians moving in, has not made it easier to find housing.


  • IMG_2687.jpeg

  • IMG_2695.jpeg

  • IMG_2694.jpeg

  • IMG_2693.jpeg
Bobko   
23 Jul 2024
News / How will Polish-American relations change if Trump is elected president again? [812]

You make an interesting point on disgracing Russia.

Despite American and British pressure, France really insisted on punishing and "disgracing" Germany after WWI. The French wanted blood, and her friends acquiesced.

We all know the results.

Humiliating somebody, is a dangerous idea. Just like on the street, you need to know who you are dealing with.
Bobko   
15 Jul 2024
Food / Panga Fish (available in Polish stores); I'll never eat it again. Alternative? [68]

Nope, Tilapia is one of the most eaten fish in Poland because of its availability and low cost

Do you just key into Google, "what is the most eaten fish in Poland?", and then come here?

I actually have no opinion on whether or not you have ever been to Poland, or if you have any relation to Poland whatsoever... but posts like these make me suspicious.

For what it's worth, I don't have anything to do with Poland either (other than grandpa being killed there, and a few drops of dna). My family and friends think I'm suffering from some form of mental illness, because of the time I spend here.
Bobko   
12 Jul 2024
Life / Clothes and Fashion Polish style - then, now whenever! [25]

Your granma ever called you "urod"

Thankfully, no.

In the literal sense - "urod" means an "ugly man". I suppose you could say it about a thing or animal too. Like, «этот Мерс пиздец урод» - "this Mercedes is f*cking ugly".

If you say it about a woman, it's "urodka".

In everyday life it doesn't really mean someone is ugly, but rather that someone is somehow morally deficient. Rude, selfish, deceitful, etc.

The word for beauty is "Krasota".

Poland was a kind of a window to a somewhat freer world

Absolutely. In another thread, some kind of Kania thread, I already posted about Orda jeans, Pollena cosmetics, and the hilariously named perfumes Być Może!
Bobko   
12 Jul 2024
Life / Clothes and Fashion Polish style - then, now whenever! [25]

At my grandma's place, I used to see old Polish fashion magazines, with a very intriguing name - "Uroda".

In Russian, "Urod" (урод), means an ugly person, or a type of moral degenerate.

I don't know why my grandma had to have fashion magazines from a language she could not understand - but I gather there were not many fashion magazines in the USSR.


  • IMG_2422.jpeg

  • IMG_2421.jpeg
Bobko   
10 Jul 2024
History / Pol-Shorpy Photo Thread [950]

russia wants to recreate the USSR and subjugate all countries around it

The game is in play, and the results are yet to be determined. Let's see who comes out on top.

Given that the West has a population at least seven times larger, and an economic potential at least 20X the size - you would think this would be a quick affair.
Bobko   
10 Jul 2024
History / Pol-Shorpy Photo Thread [950]

dominate countries with superior culture

Yes because Russian culture in the 19th century was inferior to Polish, Lithuanian, Latvian, Estonian and Finnish culture.

When nobody wanted to listen to you in Paris, London, Geneva, etc - you could be a professor in Russia.

What a terrible tragedy.
Bobko   
10 Jul 2024
History / Pol-Shorpy Photo Thread [950]

Cause russia wants to be more than it is.... more

Russia's heart is as hot as the Sun, our soul - wider than the Universe.

What can be "more" than Russia?

We have everything in abundance, too much even for ourselves - we need nothing, except for your respect.

No... you are wrong. Russia has no borders, and there is nothing that can contain it.
Bobko   
10 Jul 2024
History / Pol-Shorpy Photo Thread [950]

Nobody knows US history (in a superficial way) more than russian wannabes...

Why?

Because being conversant in US history is not good for mental health of persons such as you?
Bobko   
10 Jul 2024
History / Pol-Shorpy Photo Thread [950]

1)
Ukrainians will hate you for years

They have been there before - and we are very patient people.

2)
the rest of the world seems less scared of Russia then ever.

Good.
Bobko   
10 Jul 2024
History / Pol-Shorpy Photo Thread [950]

However, the US colonized nobody.

1) Philippines (annexed from Empire of Spain)
2) Cuba (annexed from Empire of Spain)
3) Samoa (1899)
4) Guam (1899)
5) Mariana Islands (same as above)
6) Puerto Rico (ibid)

Late to the scene, and a country that had fought for its own independence - America didn't have as much time to colonize as the Europeans did - but it did a decent job.

Then through WWI and WW2 they stripped the Danish, Dutch, English, and others of further colonies.

Study US history - you may be surprised what you learn.
Bobko   
10 Jul 2024
History / Pol-Shorpy Photo Thread [950]

like Russia, you will always be a third-rate empire. no matter what...

How can you build a first rate empire, when instead of Indians and Malays, you have goddamn Poles and stupid f*ckin Balts and Finns?

Even a monkey could colonize India and the Philippines.

Try colonizing Poland or Moldavia - and then write me a report about how it went.
Bobko   
10 Jul 2024
History / Pol-Shorpy Photo Thread [950]

Maybe you should learn that

No. You can learn that, and good luck.

We are still able to affect the real world, and materialize our dreams.

That's the difference, between everybody who's crying and moaning (Poland, France, UK, etc) - and those that are trying to still fix things (US, China, India, Brazil, etc).

Devoid of any ability to affect anything - even a modest policy change in a neighboring government - you people have only "morals" and "principles" to fall back on.

Where these "morals" and "principles" were when everything was going honky-dory... that's anyone's guess.

It seems people's "values" and "principles" only awaken when they are no longer able to be active agents.
Bobko   
10 Jul 2024
History / Pol-Shorpy Photo Thread [950]

Kyiv is not a russian city

Kiev, as many a Russian statesman has said over the centuries, is the "Mother of All Russian Cities".

It's second only to Moscow and St. Petersburg in the amount of top people it has produced (maybe second only to Moscow).

After the first capital in Novgorod, Kiev became the center of all Russian life.

What you said - is like telling Poles that Vilnius is a Lithuanian city.
Bobko   
10 Jul 2024
History / Pol-Shorpy Photo Thread [950]

The monument depicts a murdered Polish child pierced with Ukrainian тризуб.

Damn.

That's a little too "on the nose" even by Russian monument standards...

Considering that the current ruling clique considers the perpetrators of those crimes to be heroes, this won't do much to bring Poland and Ukraine closer together.