Life / Is it worth returning to Poland in old age? [168]

The hand kiss is charming, Rich, and you know it.
Have been told by Poles that the difference between the traditional
Austrian "Kuess die Hand, gnae' Frau!" and the Polish (unspoken) "Caluje Pani raczki!",
is that the Poles mean it and it's not just going through the motions.

News / Will PiS be happy if AfD wins elections in Germany? [1302]

By what though? Some might say through Europlish, on the other hand,
the more Trump's tariffs begin to take effect long term, who's to say?

Life / Problems adjusting in Poland [41]

That's right! Statistically, one's much more likely to survive, much less comfortably, in Poland knowing
Polish than not.

Language / Use of "Pan/Pani" in Poland vs Other Countries [30]

Probably.

Food / Polish v Western farm produce? [19]

Polish apples are said to be the best tasting in Europe.

Off-Topic / A "humorous" aside to US 47th President [31]

But of course you are emotionally sound.

Paul Krugman was right; Trump brought out the racists like yourself, to vote
against themselves, blinded by prejudice and lumping all failed liberal programs
into one pot.

Off-Topic / Random Chat Thread [552]

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Life / Is it worth returning to Poland in old age? [168]

No, not sole. However, thanks to both the Web and my contacts, I remain in touch with
Poland, if not only for my language as well for my acquaintanceships.

Off-Topic / A "humorous" aside to US 47th President [31]

I realized that she wouldn't win, yet, I also voted for Biden the first time as well,
thinking that he'd lose, maintaining hope of a victory of sanity.

Life / Is it worth returning to Poland in old age? [168]

FYI, Szczecin is NOT a village and I was there for nearly ten whole days.
Kindly get your facts straight.

Language / Use of "Pan/Pani" in Poland vs Other Countries [30]

You're apparently still in your teen rebellion phase, Rich!
Why not just put a sock on it, dude, this ethnocentrism is
growing tiresome.

News / Will PiS be happy if AfD wins elections in Germany? [1302]

There was a volume which appeared during the mid-90's called "Die Vergangenheit die nicht vergehen will"
(The past that will not pass away), written by a German historian, if I recall the title correctly, and discusses the
Holocaust as a sort of black hole, into which all of post-War German history has been sucked.

News / Will PiS be happy if AfD wins elections in Germany? [1302]

There's always pre-Wall vs. post-Wall Europe.

News / Will PiS be happy if AfD wins elections in Germany? [1302]

Perhaps you're right. After all, you grew up there. I grew up hearing German all around me
from earliest childhood here in the States, but never set foot on German soil until I was a grad student in the summer
of '87. At the time, we were still in East vs. West Germany and the world was waaaay less globalized
than it is today.

Off-Topic / A "humorous" aside to US 47th President [31]

Ahemm, would you have voted for Starmer or Farrage as future PM, huh?

News / Will PiS be happy if AfD wins elections in Germany? [1302]

More an "Abwehrmechanismus" or "defense mechanism" than anything else, I'd say! When the Mitscherlichs
wrote "The Inability to Mourn" (Die Unfaehigkeit zu trauern) in 1967, Mitscherlich was dubbed the nastiest names in the
German press. Germans simply couldn't handle the truth.

News / Will PiS be happy if AfD wins elections in Germany? [1302]

Thanks, B.B.
In fact, I was aware of that tidbit of information as well. I only mentioned the FRG
since the West touted herself as having moved beyond the indelible shadows of the
Hitler Era, when to be completely truthful, this was far from the case.

Off-Topic / A "humorous" aside to US 47th President [31]

I did vote for Kamala, if only as one vote for sanity in the family.
Furthermore, in the US, there is a separation not only between
Church and State, hence making us a democracy vs. a theocracy,
but most importantly, between the third branch of our government,
the Judiciary, from the Executive.

No president has the unlimited power of a despot, even if Trump
does behave like a sandbox bully and attempts to dismiss anything
which doesn't suit his fancy!

Life / Is it worth returning to Poland in old age? [168]

Well, although I haven't returned for a visit for many years, I'm still
in touch with acquaintances in Poland and in fact, save for the local
bank or business for example, "Pan"/"Pani", along with the hand kiss,
is rapidly going out of style, unfortunately.

Despite not having gone back, I do manage to stay up to date as much
as I can:-)

News / Will PiS be happy if AfD wins elections in Germany? [1302]

Again, post-War West Germany was chocked full of former Nazis,
often in the same posts as they'd held right before the end of the War,
Camp doctors, for example one Herta Oberhaeuser of Ravensbrueck!

She was actually re-admitted to practice openly in the small North German
town of Bad Segesberg until the late '60's and I had the rare chance to
catch her final interview or so on German TV. When members of the
studio audience in Hamburg were asked their reactions to a former
Concentration Camp physician being allowed to resume her post, one
woman replied, "Oh, but I think those victims were only Jewish children, or?"

The more times change, the more they stay the same.

Life / Problems adjusting in Poland [41]

Ron, speaking solely English in any foreign country is not a panacea!
Poland, much more so than either Sweden or Northern Germany, the Netherlands etc.
doesn't have a plethora of competent bilingual native English speakers. Therefore,
it's really imperative to know at least basic Polish in order to survive...even if you look
like Sean Connery LOL

Language / Use of "Pan/Pani" in Poland vs Other Countries [30]

Depends though, Maf!

Learning another language often means exploring stuff which native speakers might simply take for granted,
for example, how many native Anglophone know (or for that matter even care) that "Good bye!" derives from
"G-d be with you!"??

Same with Pan/pan and Pani/pani.

Off-Topic / A "humorous" aside to US 47th President [31]

I fail to grasp the immediate connection here, jon.

News / Will PiS be happy if AfD wins elections in Germany? [1302]

Tacitus is dead right, apropos a post of mine from several weeks prior. The Old Man
was indeed a most adamantly anti-Nazi Lord Mayor of Cologne during the critical years of
the 1930's.

It is ironic therefore that during his initial term in Office, he frequently selected
former top Nazis to fill key cabinet posts, among them, the infamous legal mind who
drafted the Nueremberg Laws, "Dr" Hans Globke. Theodor Oberlaender was also an
Adenauer appointee during the second phase of the Economic Miracle, if memory serves
me correctly. Oops, it might actually have been Erhard, my apologies!

Language / Use of "Pan/Pani" in Poland vs Other Countries [30]

"Pan"/"Pani" is merely a throwback to the earliest development of the Polish language.
What's confusing for foreigners learning Polish is simply that "Pan(i)" alone literally means
"Lord"/"Lady". It's really no more obsequious sounding than any number of European languages
such as French, German, Italian, Romanian among others, which employ a formal or distant
mode when addressing strangers, certainly authority figures.

News / France and Germany plan to flood Poland with illegal migrants. [161]

@Attaboy, jon!
@Joker, go kiss a fish!

News / France and Germany plan to flood Poland with illegal migrants. [161]

Trump wants to discard the establishment in his own way, having claimed oddly enough ever since he first ran for pres.
way back at the end of 2015, that he was always straight, button-down, conventional, as anti-60's as you can getLOL

Even if he never took a toke or smoked even a whiff of weed in his life, his crazed, rogue anti-conventional "business as
usual" approach to statesmanship couldn't be more anti-establishment if it tried.

My point is that Trump's Maga campaign is ever more quickly eroding the bedrock of American democracy, a sort of
nightmarish caricature of every extreme in US-culture on steroids!

Was watching a fascinating Q & A with Eddie Muller on one of my favorite noirs "Double Indemnity" (1943), during which
Muller basically said, paraphrasing liberally here, "Cain essentially boiled down the American personality to a bunch of quick-buck chasing mother f#$%*s who'd
gladly see their own mothers on fire if that were the only way they had of lighting a cigarette."

Kinda fits the current US president now, doesn't it?

Off-Topic / Random Chat Thread [552]

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News / France and Germany plan to flood Poland with illegal migrants. [161]

Meanwhile allegedly Trump is attempting to mend fences between BREXIT-Britain and
the EU, according to the NYT! The front page shows Tusk, Merz, Macron, and Starmer all
looking with guarded cautiousness into the camera.