Tag: poland

About yesterday

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Given that today is the anniversary of 9/11 – arguably the biggest news day in living memory – it was probably fitting that yesterday was probably right up there with it in having the most “big” stories in a single 24 hour period, although none of them quite toppling the gravitas of that day in 2001.

Yet.

But wow. There was a lot that went on, and I think it’s worth documenting them, just in case “9/10” or more correctly “10/9” doesn’t become a thing, and future us forget that an awful lot happened that day.

And so, in no particular order:

Riots, a government toppled, ministers beaten and the parliament building burned down in Nepal.

Late annual riots in France, and the resignation of the Prime Minister there.

The shooting of Charlie Kirk, grandson of the famous Star Wars captain, James T.

I’m not a fan of political violence, nor any violence at all, really, but I couldn’t help but think of the words of Clarence Darrow, who wrote in his 1932 book The Story of My Life, “I have never killed any one, but I have read some obituary notices with great satisfaction”.

It’s perfectly possible to condemn everything that Kirk stood for (and I do) and also condemn his murder (which I also do). But “awful people certainly don’t deserve to be killed, but they certainly don’t deserve to be praised, either” seems to be a difficult leap for a lot of minds out there.

Russia sends drones into Polish airspace.

Almost forgotten about with potential starting points of various civil wars going on – the potential starting point of World War III. A reminder that Russia objects to Ukraine becoming a member of NATO because “it doesn’t want NATO on its doorstep”, but it already shares borders with Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, and Finland.

Israel bombs Qatar and Yemen. And Gaza, obviously.

Almost forgotten about with potential starting points of various civil wars going on and the potential starting point of World War III. Another potential starting point of World War III.

Oh, and they still haven’t released the Epstein Files. Let’s not ever let them forget about that, no matter what else is sent to distract us.

But as I said, there was a lot of news yesterday. Just none of it was very good.

What a complete and utter mess the world is in.
Let’s let this all subside a little (hopefully, at least) and then see which bits carry forward, and deal with them as we need.

Geoguessr help: Poland Edition

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Almost as demarcated as those maps I shared of Germany a while back (here and here), how’s this map of the ending of town names in Poland?

This is a bit more North West/South East than anything else, but as ever, it’s because of history and you can see it in the political landscape too:

KO absolutely KO’ing PiS in the North West, PiS peeing all over KO in the South East.

These are examples of Poland A & B, the division between the ex-Prussian area and the Austro-Russian areas in the Partition of Poland in the late 18th Century. And while that might seem reasonable for the town names which were around then and would have persisted, it’s amazing that the divide is still evident in elections held this year:

Still, really helpful when you land in a field in the middle of nowhere. Is that nearby village an -owo or an -ów?

Got to be good for a few extra points.

Day 397 – Mystery animal turns out to be croissant

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Spotted recently, saved to Pocket, being blogged now. It’s important news from Poland.

Indeed.

And sure, a scary creature hanging around in a tree outside your apartment block window isn’t great. But I have to ask a couple of questions here. They’re mainly raised by the line at the end of that screengrab above.

“Asked to describe the animal, she said that it could be an iguana.”

The first question is “has that ‘desperate’ woman ever seen an iguana?”. And no, I’m not talking about that time she thought she’d spotted a monitor lizard, only for it to turn out to be a baguette. It does seem to me that there is some unnecessary confusion here. And then the second obviously concerns her eyesight generally. Because how can you mistake a croissant for a iguana? Especially when the croissant in question looks… well… like a croissant:

Easy for me to say now, I guess, knowing full well that what we’re looking at here is a croissant in a tree. And in fact, probably fairly straightforward for me to say if I had seen the croissant in the tree in the first place. Because it’s a croissant.

But what would a croissant be doing in a garden in the middle of suburban Kraków? I hear you ask. Well, what the hell would an iguana be doing in the same situation? I’m not saying that a French bread product lodged 20ft up a tree in the deep south of Poland is anything like normal, but you can’t seriously suggest that an iguana chilling out between the branches there would be a reasonable sighting either. And then there’s the additional chink in your reptilian armour: the fact that this doesn’t look anything like an iguana; mainly because it looks like a croissant. Because it is actually a croissant.

“Everyone is scared of it”

Oh, get a grip. It’s a light, delicately sweet French pastry, made from layered yeast-leavened dough. Honestly, the greatest risk you face, should it somehow weirdly make its way into your home, is perhaps a little extra hoovering because of its characteristic flaky texture.
It’s not going to kill you. And it tastes divine with a little jam and when accompanied by a decent coffee. Yet another difference (aside from the obvious appearance thing) between this and a iguana.

Look, it’s dark outside right now, but I will be carefully checking the trees in the neighbourhood for scary creatures and/or Parisian pastry products at first light tomorrow.