She still loves him even though he is a 1L and forgot to get her a birthday present (because of Law School demands, so he says!) 

Lots of humor in the bunch. Lots. 

I worked without flash. She doesn't need flash anyway. She organized this evening, she shines! 

They sat in the front row and they kept me on my toes. Every day. 

Quiet? No. Not at all. And her family should be so proud. Oh, they are? well, deservedly so. 

They're friends. Really. Even though he sat on the left of the classroom and she sat on the right. 

Texas dudes - each so talanted it hurts; and the one in pink? She can deliver a line with a straight face and leave you convulsed with laughter. 

Does anyone else think that the British have a superior sense of humor – so much so that sometimes it’s hard for other mere mortals to laugh along?

There was a time when I looked forward to humorous British flicks. They were so…puzzling. Remember the one about the pig that made its way into the household? It was impossibly funny. I guess.

Today marks the day of the return of the Little Britain – a comedy series aired on the BBC. How funny is it? Consider this description and photo of one of the characters:


Bubbles
Repulsively obese Bubbles spends all her time at a health spa, being preened and pampered at the expense of her mysteriously-absent businessman husband. Whenever the manager tries to establish when her husband will be settling the balance, she fobs him off before offering him 'alternative' methods of payment...

To celebrate and promote the return of the show, BBC sponsored a contest for people to write in untrue facts about Britain. Here are some favorites. Unique, aren’t they?

In Britain, roundabouts were installed in 1904 at cliffs to stop people driving into the sea.

Scotland was supposed to be called Wales, but it was found that the name had already been taken.

In Britain, something funny happens every 13 years.

Cornwall was added onto Britain in 1923 to make it a more attractive shape.

Britain is actually pronounced 'Britain', which not many people know.

In Britain 86% of people are right handed, 13% use their left hand. The other 1% don't bother.

For health reasons, doughnuts contain no nuts.

City gents in Britain wear bowler hats as a tribute to Laurel and Hardy.

Britain's museums contain the largest number of bronze age pots in the world. Please feel free to take one.

The only qualification you need to work for the Royal family is, bizzarely, the abilty to spin plates.

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.]

Thanks for the memories…

It’s odd to be hearing these words repeatedly on one day, in two different contexts.

I woke up to news of the closing of JFW – the weblog that inspired Ocean. Thanks, Jeremy, for introducing yourself through your blog.

… And I turned on the news tonight to listen to Brokaw’s parting words on NBC Nightly News: It’s not the Qs that get us in trouble [he tells us], it’s the answers and no one person has all the answers.

At the same time, Ocean got a link moments ago from a blog titled “The Polish Immigrant” (it is not the first time). A sympathetic fellow blogger? Couldn’t be less so. He writes in his post:

(Knee) jerk [that would be me]
I've been ignoring this blogger [link to Ocean] for a while now but all good things come to an end. She is a somewhat influential [!?] Pole teaching in my graduate school. And she is wrong on all important issues.

The blog has a comments function where I responded thus:

I guess I find it somewhat reassuring that someone out there has all the correct answers and can definitively say that I am wrong on all [issues]. I myself do not think I am "right" or "wrong," I simply give one perspective -- my own.

I guess Brokaw and I agree.

As for Jeremy, let me say this: get going on your next writing adventure, a.s.a.p.

‘Tis the season to talk more about food

Think you can’t find pierniczki w czekoladzie in Madison for the holidays? Think you have to travel to Poland to stock up? Oh, then you don’t know about Clasen’s Bakery and their yearly baking rituals. The dark chocolate-covered gingerbread cookies are only available during the first weeks in December. I dragged myself “oh so reluctantly” there and bought a pack. Or two. Okay, many more than that.

Bags and bags of "pierniczki w czekoladzie."

The gingerbread is soft, yummy, the chocolate is dark... the perfect winter companion to coffee, tea, or hot chocolate. 

How to love a (Polish) Pope even if you basically disagree with much of what he says

The Italians have found a way. In the IHT today:

Italians routinely ignore the conservative Pope John Paul II in matters of private morality, like contraception, divorce or marriage (far fewer Italians are marrying, in the church or out), but admire him deeply for his stands on issues like caring for the poor or his outspoken opposition to the war in Iraq.

The article points out that Italians are much less adversarial in their approach to secularism and Christianity. There may be a crucifix in every classroom, but few give it more than a passing glance, feeling neither devout about it nor repelled by it. Though I have read this about Italy before, I wonder sometimes if there isn’t a geographical divide there as well, with the South being less tolerant of secularism and the North, less preoccupied with Church matters in general, feeling perhaps culturally more aligned with its north-western neighbors than with its southern provinces.

Still, it’s ‘good’ to read that the Pope has some fans outside of Poland.

Poland, turning nannyish?? Never!

A reader sent a link to a story in the Boston Globe that compared Poland today with where Ireland was some ten, twenty years ago: only Poland is even poorer, even more agricultural and devoutly Catholic in the rural communities, and even more historically dominated by powerful and oppressive neighbors.

It is suggested that Poles feel comfortable in Ireland and view it as the model for where they would like to be a few years down the road (given that Ireland was ranked by the Economist as having the highest quality of life in the entire world, it is not a bad goal for Poland to aspire to, especially since currently, the standard of living index for Poland is 40% of the EU average).

Okay, fine. But I’m reading as well that what Poles admire tremendously in the Irish is their confidence. We know that Poles have a strong inferiority complex, cultivated fastidiously over the centuries. There is reason for it: the country has suffered terribly in the most degrading and base ways. The resultant sense of humiliation and plain old sadness wont go away overnight, not even with a giant leap into prosperity.

But are we slated to then have a nannyish government (an accusation levied against the British as well as the Irish)? Not likely. There is a felt national defiance that is resilient to paternalism. Nannyish legislation works well in places where people continue to fuss about the proper way to drink tea – Britain comes to mind (Melanie Phillips at the Daily Mail wrote several months back when commenting on Blair’s tough stance on national vices: "Our nannyish government—which is trying so hard to stop us smoking or stuffing our faces with cream buns or behaving in other ways of which it disapproves...”). Poland has yet to even suggest, for example, a smoking ban in bars. If and when it does so, I can guarantee that the stubborn majority will roll their eyes while it’s rolling another cigarette.

weather watch

Last week I complained bitterly about traveling to Poland where early snowstorms have hit Warsaw with a fury, given that I still had roses blooming in my Wisconsin back yard.

Today I must issue a correction.

Current temp. in Madison: 36 degrees F
Current temp. in Warsaw: 36 degrees F

Now, can we just keep it at that sublime (upwards of freezing) level in both places for a month or two?