I blame Bia?oszewski. For the short sentences. In fact, fragmentary. Sentences, that is. Very annoying. He wrote a book once. Famous. Pami?tnik z powstania warszawskiego. It was called. Miron Bia?oszewski wrote short, abrupt sentences in a sometimes successful attempt to capture and reflect the urgency and chaos of Warsaw during the uprising. Polish lends itself […]
On Thursday, in the sleepy provincial city of Lublin, things got exciting. A motorist noticed that the driver of a Cherokee jeep (price: around 150,000 zl — you can buy a flat for that) was behaving erratically, weaving all over the road and stopping and starting for no reason. On calling the police he was […]
Today’s Gazeta Wyborcza has an interview with Lorenzo Vidino, an Italian terrorism expert, about the recent near-attack on trans-atlantic aeroplanes. The interviewer is the ever incisive Mariusz Zawadzki. The headline is “Why Great Britain Again?” It is quite a puzzler, alright. Vidino is able to help: he says that Britain is perceived the world over […]
I wrote a few weeks back about an article — nay, an appeal — in Gazeta Wyborcza written by three young economists and claiming that Poland was facing a dependency-rate crisis (i.e. too many leeches like the old, the young and the sick and not enough worker drones). Among the authors of that article was […]
During a visit to a rescue team in July President Kaczy?ski was introduced to a sniffer dog. The dog’s handler said: “Ira siad!” (“Era, sit!”). Poor Lechos?aw is reported to have said “Irasiad jest bardzo zdenerwowany” (“Erasit is very agitated”). I won’t say I wouldn’t have made the same mistake.
Asked by Niedziela (“Sunday,” a Catholic weekly) if he was in favour of withdrawing Polish troops from Iraq, Lechos?aw Kaczy?ski, primesident of Poland, replied: We have gained a few things thanks to it [our engagement in Iraq]. It’s completely senseless, Polish soldiers have died there — that’s the most important thing because the life of […]
They did things differently in the past. Road signs in Poland did not always strictly conform with the strait-jacketed expectations of west European motorists. For instance, there are at least two different signs to indicate pedestrians crossing! How many accidents has that little fanebrium caused? One shows a girl (she has a pony tail) and […]
Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz used to be the (quite popular) prime minister of Poland. For reasons not entirely clear to me (“wasn’t in that day, sir”), he stepped aside so that the president’s twin brother could take over. He is now the president of Warsaw, according to his blog. (I was under the impression that he was […]
Another journalist is in trouble for insulting a government member. This time it’s Mariusz Ziomecki, who called a League of Polish Families deputy a “babsztyl” (big fat aul’ one) and a liar in a tabloid, and is now being investigated for “defaming a public functionary.” The prosecutor’s office called him in for questioning. What interests […]
I went up the country. It turns out that not all life in Poland revolves around pubs and discos. Out there the centre of social life is the shop — the only one for miles around — sometimes open on split shifts: 6 to 10 in the morning and 6 to 10 in the evening. […]
