Nearly Christmas, when they come for you lie!

25.11.05, 10:13
A Polish Christmas. Bits of straw given away free with the wyborcza. The same
patriotic films they show on telly at every religious festival.
And, of course, articles in every single magazine and newspaper in PL
about "How Do They Celebrate Christmas In Other Countries?"
These are always extremely stupid and full of simplistic stereotypes, since
they are written exclusively for people who have learned to read within the
past 12 months, since everyone else who is even remotely interested read
identical articles last year.
Some of them simply get their info from the Internet - "In Germany they have
trees and special sweets!", but others track down foreigners and ask them
cretinous questions.
It happened to me, it'll happen to you. I made the mistake of telling the
truth, but if another paper comes poking about this festive season I'm going
to lie and I advise everyone else to do the same.
Tell them you ritually slaughter a badger on Christmas Eve, or that you eat
hallucinogenic mushrooms and talk to the baby Jesus, or that Christmas is
banned in your country and that's the main reason you came to Poland.
    • russh Re: Nearly Christmas, when they come for you lie! 25.11.05, 10:38
      Ian, you mean you don't slaughter Badgers and eat hallucinogenic mushrooms at
      Christmas.

      Shame on you.
      • usenetposts Re: Nearly Christmas, when they come for you lie! 25.11.05, 11:21
        And if they don't believe you, link them to

        www.ebaumsworld.com/flash/santabadger.html
      • ianek70 Re: Nearly Christmas, when they come for you lie! 25.11.05, 11:57
        russh napisał:

        > Ian, you mean you don't slaughter Badgers and eat hallucinogenic mushrooms at
        > Christmas.

        Well, only a soya badger, and no more hallucinogenic mushrooms than during the
        rest of the year.
    • usenetposts Re: Nearly Christmas, when they come for you lie! 25.11.05, 11:26
      Another amusing thing is what they've been saying about Hyde Park in the Polish
      media recently.

      I'm not sure where it started, but I saw it in this here online GW first,
      that "older democracies" set aside special areas for demonstrations like the
      one in Poznan, such as London's Hyde Park.

      On TVP 1 last night there was a discussion involving a lot of the great and
      good of Polish politics, including a bunch of MPs and noted commentators, and
      one of the things they talked about was how "England" had managed to get around
      the problem of free speech getting in the way of ordinary life by thinking up a
      place called Hyde Park, which is where people go if they want to have a mass
      demonstration.

      Talk about getting hold of the wrong end of the stick.

      But there they all were, with straight faces, reciting and imbibing this utter
      guff about our country.
      • ianek70 Hyde Park 25.11.05, 12:05
        They've always had this odd idea about Hyde Park. I assume someone long ago
        read about Speaker's Corner and it got exaggerated.
        "To prawdziwe Hyde Park!" they say, if people dare to discuss their opinions.
        Sometimes it even has negative connotations, like if folk start expressing what
        they really feel, then one day even Poland could have a small muddy puddle
        under a tree where a religious nutter stands haranguing passers-by. If only...
        Although having said that, I've expressed myself in Hyde Park, not politically,
        mind you smile
      • nasza_maggie Re: Nearly Christmas, when they come for you lie! 25.11.05, 13:33
        Talk about getting hold of the wrong end of the stick.
        >
        > But there they all were, with straight faces, reciting and imbibing this
        utter
        > guff about our country.


        Oooooooooh like the Brits don't do that about other countries and
        nations!? smile))))
        • usenetposts Re: Nearly Christmas, when they come for you lie! 25.11.05, 20:07
          nasza_maggie napisała:

          > Talk about getting hold of the wrong end of the stick.
          > >
          > > But there they all were, with straight faces, reciting and imbibing this
          > utter
          > > guff about our country.
          >
          >
          > Oooooooooh like the Brits don't do that about other countries and
          > nations!? smile))))

          There is that stereotype about the British, but I don't think that is any more
          deserved by us than by nations that don't have that stereotype.

          If we look at the BBC's reporting of Polish events, we see a lot of
          distortions. Half the time they don't even have a dedicated reporter but send
          in that atrocious Tristana Moore, who usually covers Germany.

          And Tristana's pronunciation of just about any Polish city shows up
          how "isolda"ted she is from the realities of this country.
          • nasza_maggie Re: Nearly Christmas, when they come for you lie! 26.11.05, 02:22
            usenetposts napisał:



            >
            > There is that stereotype about the British, but I don't think that is any
            more
            > deserved by us than by nations that don't have that stereotype.
            >

            I think the Brits have mastered the art of stereotypes to the Teee.
            So it's funny how over time, tables turnsmile
            • russh Re: Nearly Christmas, when they come for you lie! 26.11.05, 02:42
              I think that every country mastered it long before you and I came along Maggie!

              Maybe it's just that people need to have stereotypes - it'a a lot easier that way.
              • nasza_maggie Re: Nearly Christmas, when they come for you lie! 26.11.05, 12:52
                russh napisał:

                > I think that every country mastered it long before you and I came along
                Maggie!

                No, no, no! The Brits were first! I'm sure smile

                > Maybe it's just that people need to have stereotypes - it'a a lot easier that
                w
                > ay.

                Ofcourse it is. That is how culture developed I guess.
                • russh Re: Nearly Christmas, when they come for you lie! 26.11.05, 14:06
                  Have you ever studied the Roman culture?

                  They were around before the Brits, and stereotyped.
                  • usenetposts Re: Nearly Christmas, when they come for you lie! 26.11.05, 18:04
                    russh napisał:

                    > Have you ever studied the Roman culture?
                    >
                    > They were around before the Brits, and stereotyped.

                    But what have the Roman stereotypes ever done for us?
                    • kylie1 Re: Nearly Christmas, when they come for you lie! 29.11.05, 22:40
                      It's called lasagna, spaghetti and pizza. Love them all!
                      smile
              • usenetposts Re: Nearly Christmas, when they come for you lie! 26.11.05, 18:03
                I think that the word looks a bit Greek, so they might have had them.

                Like television, telephone, etc.
    • ianek70 Down with commercialisation of Xmas! And up! 28.11.05, 12:40
      This morning there was the usual outraged conservative crap on the radio
      about "political correctness gone mad".
      This time it was because some shops in America aren't calling their Xmas sales
      Xmas sales any more, and Christians are (as usual) offended.
      For decades they've been moaning (quite rightly, in my opinion) about the
      commercialisation of Christmas. What's shopping got to do with Jesus? Where are
      there elves in the Bible? And now the same people complain when Christmas is de-
      commercialised.
      Can you imagine if they de-commercialised, for example, papal visits in Poland?
      If they started doing religious stuff instead of buying balloons and collecting
      tacky souvenirs from newspapers? Analysing the theological implications of his
      speeches on TV instead of telling us what he had for breakfast?
      • nasza_maggie Re: Down with commercialisation of Xmas! And up! 28.11.05, 12:45
        no comments on America.


        Can you imagine if they de-commercialised, for example, papal visits in Poland?
        >
        > If they started doing religious stuff instead of buying balloons and
        collecting
        >
        > tacky souvenirs from newspapers? Analysing the theological implications of
        his
        > speeches on TV instead of telling us what he had for breakfast?

        I don't think papal visits ARE that commercial. Or WERE. In actual fact it is
        only recently, after the surge of foreign media companies on Poland that you
        get the tacky stuff in papers and to be really, REALLY honest I think the most
        tack has been produced since the death of JPII. I can't really see it being the
        same with Benedict...maybe in Germany - but I'm sure Davey can say more about
        the Germans than mesmile
        • varsovian Re: Down with commercialisation of Xmas! And up! 29.11.05, 15:22
          nasza_maggie napisała:


          > I don't think papal visits ARE that commercial. Or WERE. In actual fact it is
          > only recently, after the surge of foreign media companies on Poland that you
          > get the tacky stuff in papers and to be really, REALLY honest I think the
          most
          > tack has been produced since the death of JPII. I can't really see it being
          the
          >
          > same with Benedict...maybe in Germany - but I'm sure Davey can say more about
          > the Germans than mesmile

          I'm so sad I missed this one - I just wanted to say that my local church has a
          kiddie service, and the daring young priest gets the kids to lead the
          prayers ... unrehearsed (hasn't he ever watched Dennis Norden's outtakes?).
          Anyway, last week one little blighter, bless him, said "May Pope Benedict be
          taken up to heaven in glory as soon as possible" The priest said "O Lord hear
          us!"
          Meanwhile, the congregation was p...... themselves.
          • nasza_maggie Re: Down with commercialisation of Xmas! And up! 29.11.05, 15:31
            rotflsmile
            My mother once told me , that a friend of hers had a party. Typical polish
            birthday party.

            The next day mums friend went to church and took her 4 year old son with her.
            Ofcourse as soon as the most important part of the ceremony began, with the
            priest raising the wine, the boy burst out in front of everyone and sang
            "HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!!!!!!" ('Sto lat! Sto lat!)
            smile)))))
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