Where do Polish people live?

Eskimos live in igloos, Japanese live in paper houses, and the English live in country cottages festooned with roses, but where do the Poles live? Most westerners probably visualize grim Stalinist blocks as the standard abode of the Pole, and it has to be said there is a degree of truth in this, but the [...]

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The Kosa controversy

Some time ago in a post entitled Weekend in the Country I suggested that the scythe had been introduced to Poland in the 1930s and that this was rather shocking since the rest of the world had apparently been using them since the Middle Ages. An avid and insightful reader, who goes by the name [...]

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Born yesterday

My second niece was born a short while ago! In fact it was yesterday, since I’m writing this a few minutes past midnight. This is her first day. Or rather yesterday is her first day since I’m one time zone to the east of her at the moment. It got me thinking, how many days [...]

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Shopping in Poland

One of the major drawbacks of being alive is that one has to keep buying stuff. Food, socks, laptops, inebriating liquids etc., the list is endless. Of course, it is possible to bypass the whole buying process by becoming a full-time hoodlum or living off the land, but both options are essentially far too much [...]

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