Thursday, December 02, 2004

Blogging notes

Thank you so very much to those* who spoke up [some quite passionately!:)] in defense of the freedom to engage in honest, inquisitive, earnest blogging conversations, in response to the Polish Immigrant’s accusations against my posts at Ocean (cited by me here). You guys rock! More importantly, you understand the importance of a thoughtful and deliberate exchanges of ideas. On a personal level – I was so completely touched, both by the comments and the handful of emails. There are some pretty decent people reading blogs these days. It gives one hope, really it does.

* I would have responded to you personally had I your email addresses.

The place to go for a shake and a rattle

Free associate!

Poland...
Obsessively blogged about lately on Ocean.

Freezing...
Wisconsin!

Freezing in Europe...
Poland?

Poland in December...
Snow, icicles, sleet, chilled, shivering…

Okay okay. Earthquake...
San Francisco!

No.
Negative, zero…

No, I mean San Francisco is wrong.
How can it be wrong? This is free association! No right, no wrong. Just free!

But it’s an educational free association and “San Francisco earthquake” is wrong. The most recent one, just today, was in the Krakow – Zakopane area of Poland.
Earthquakes?? In Poland?? But that’s where you’re heading, right? First Hokkaido last spring (earthquake recorded a few days ago), now Krakow – Zakopane, aren’t you scared?

Believe me, if I see anything rattling down there it will be, most likely, the highlanders’ dentures.

It's all fun and games while you're in Law School

My first year law students are enjoying themselves in these last days of classes. Someone posted a Civ Pro Quiz (Which Federal Rule of Civil Procedure are you? -- found here; I hope it's PG - 13, I did not check the results) and several are posting their answers on the small section email list.

I wish I were a student again. I'm home grading papers. Their papers. Bummer being a professor rather than a 1L, engaged in merriment now, in the last days prior to exams.

Ask a Pole

If you click onto interia.pl (and if you speak Polish so that you can actually understand what comes up) you’ll find a link to an Internet Polish news source, with several CNN-style questionnaires soliciting opinions on any number of issues. I’m going to translate just two, one that I think speaks to the deeply-rooted national complex I wrote of in an earlier post, and the other highlighting what I indeed know about Poles: they are avid readers.

(This poll follows an article about how Poles are breaking with stereotypes as they travel to England to find work under the new EU open-door policy)
Which of these stereotypes about Poles do you think is most widespread?
(3025 Poles responded when last I checked)

That s/he is a drunkard: 30%
That s/he is lazy: 1%
That s/he is knowledgeable: 7%
That s/he is hardworking: 3%
That s/he steals: 22%
That s/he is a manipulator: 37%


How many books did you read in the last 6 months?
(1021 Poles responded when last I checked)

1: 6%
2: 6%
3: 9%
4– 6: 21%
7 – 10: 12%
more than 10: 31%
none 15%

[If you are thinking that Net users are perhaps more likely to be bookish, I’d say an argument for the opposite can be made: avid Net users tend to read less than those without access to a computer. In any event, the results don’t surprise me. Poles really do read a lot – not only books, but also journals with social and political commentary.]