Marcin Świetlicki’s second novel, Trzynaście (Thirteen), is a follow up to his first novel, Dwanaście (Twelve), which was a “magical, cult” novel, the blurb tells me. I read Twelve so I suppose that makes me a “follower with exaggerated zeal” of Świetlicki. Or maybe Świetlicki was yanking his publisher’s chain when he wrote the blurb: […]
Some time ago a genius discovered that Republicans don’t watch Michael Moore films and Democrats don’t watch Hannity and Colmes. Lefty talks to lefty, nutcase to nutcase and no one crosses the party lines. There is no real debate. I myself regularly check out Hannity and Colmes, Michelle Malkin, Bill O’Reilly and Ann Coulter – […]
This weekend’s Gazeta Wyborcza is headlined “You Will Earn More.” The euphoria continues, unblemished by debate, assessment, macroeconomic statistics or rationality in the body of the story. “Składka na ubezpieczenie rentowe” will drop from 6.5% of your gross wage to 3.5%. That’s a fall of nearly a half! The exclamation mark was used by the […]
“Police had to use force yesterday to disperse demonstrators” reads a photograph caption in Friday’s super libertarian Gazeta Wyborcza. How do they know? In the absence of two independent, named sources (or is that old hat in the old media?), should the caption not read: “Police used force to disperse demonstrators”? This was published hard […]
Friday’s Gazeta Wyborcza carried a story under the above headline (more or less) on its front page. In it Bartosz Węglarczyk calculated how much time Kaczyński would have to talk to Bush on the latter’s visit here. The answer: 40 minutes, and since an interpreter would be needed that should be halved. Consecutive interpreting Węglarczyk […]
In an interview in this weekend’s Dziennik Noam Chomsky says that Hitler, when he invaded Czechoslovakia, claimed he was doing so to bring peace. The Soviets also claimed to have Poland’s interests at heart in the 1940s. The US claimed to be bringing democracy to Iraq. What is the newspaperman’s response? Imperialna Ameryka niczym się […]
There is a scene in “Boogie Nights” where the luckless ex-porn stars go off to do some drug dealing. The dealer spends a good part of the scene bragging about his mix-tape. It’s not a blunder on the part of the film makers. They really did have mix tapes in the 80s. I am reminded […]
Headline in last week’s Polityka: “How to demand a pay-rise that will give you a good living and not bankrupt your employer.” In the olden days employers were expected to look out for their own interests. Now it seems this burden is also to fall on the employee.
In the case against Dr. G, the doctor falsely and publicly accused by Poland’s minister for justice of murder, the prosecution intends calling on expert witnesses, from abroad if necessary. Marek Celej has this to say about it in last week’s Polityka Nie bardzo sobie wyobrażam, jak taki biegły miałby zeznawać w sądzie. Przecież język […]
With hindsight, I suppose it was inevitable that the ruling establishment in Poland turn its guns on the teletubbies. Inevitable, too, that I would at least mention it, even though Beatroot already has too. The Spokesperson for Children’s Rights, Ewa Sowińska, thinks one or all of them is propogating homosexuality. She thinks they should be […]
