Product Overview
Since July 2004 the author has been writing about Polish language, literature, and folklore for the Boston-based biweekly Biały Orzeł/White Eagle. Inspired by the calendar, by items in the Polish press, by his experience learning and teaching the Polish language, by new acquisitions for his home library, by questions from readers, and by serendipity, he has explored, among other things, the origins of words and expressions, the grammatical peculiarities of the language, and the reflections of everyday (and not so everyday) life in Polish proverbs and folksongs and in the works of great Polish writers.
The present edited collection of seventy of his columns deals with topics ranging from the one way in which Polish is easier than English to the connection between cheesecake, bagels, and King Jan Sobieski; and from why Napoleon told his troops that they should drink like Polish soldiers to how the first coffee roasting establishment in Poland treated its employees. You don’t have to be Polish – or even know Polish – to enjoy the essays collected here.
