It’s always been a matter of some surprise to me that I have never been busted for tax evasion. I’ve worked in a dozen countries under a kaleidoscopically variegated set of tax systems (Poland alone has at least three different kinds of employment contract) – none of which I have ever understood. A snotty letter […]
They have this TV station here called TVN 24 – yes it is original, isn’t it? – devoted to news only. I happened to catch sight of it over the tremendously boring Easter holidays here. As befits a creative industry, they have copied the western habit of having a ticker tape at the bottom of […]
“Unknown Man: I’ll be around for some time. I have a mission to accomplish. […] Unknown Man: And all the time the volcano beneath our feet is seething and boiling. We are riddled through and through with conspiracies, secret societies, plots… Onek: Yes! The dirty bloody hunchbacks are plotting! Unkown Man: What hunchbacks… Onka: My […]
Andrzej Zybertowicz puts up a strong, if entirely illogical, defence of the law requiring journalists to swear to whether they did or did not cooperate with the secret services of communist Poland in Wednesday’s Rzeczpospolita. Journalists should sign the loyalty declarations beacuse they are “the fourth estate.” It’s that simple. I have scoured the constitution […]
Not all journos here are finding the legal requirement to pledge that you never informed under communism so irksome as those prima donnas who claim that this is mere humiliation, since in any case the archives are about to be thrown open to journalists (and that, as mentioned before, means nearly everyone — including you, […]
From March 15th all journalists born before 1972 working in Poland will have to sign a declaration that they did not spy for the Polish People’s Republic. That includes me: Polish law has a very wide definition of journalism and the bill makes no distinction between Poles and foreigners. Nor does it make any attempt […]
“Monachal” means pertaining to monks. The OED gives a citation from 1587. A “vaticination” is an inspired or oracular vision – attested in 1603. Perhaps Leavis was making fun of Conrad.
Wikipedia on dialogue in theatre of the absurd: “repetitive or nonsensical dialogue and dramatic non-sequiturs are often used to create dream-like, or even nightmare-like moods.” For example: XX: I think that you people are under a curse. […] AA: I like what you said just now. XX: Do you? AA: The great problem is to […]
Pay attention class. Up till now the primary degree in Poland was not a BA but an MA. This takes five years of study and is awarded on submission of an MA thesis. After the MA you can go on to do a PhD – also by research – and then a “habilitacja.” The consequences […]
I am happy to report that I have solved the mystery of why Polish writers are so sloppy about little things like suspension of disbelief. They’re copying Joseph “monachal vaticinations” Conrad. In Under Western Eyes Razumov enters his apartment to find a man called Haldin inside, waiting for him. How did this man get in? […]
