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[Carlos del Vaca]

I actually visited Poland for a week in 2002.  I ate the best pierogies ever there, which is how it should be, right?  Also, a zloty is worth about 25 cents US.

[jay-ell]

I keep holding out hope that I'll be able to go visit my fourth cousin in Poland who found me while she was doing some geneology research on our very rare surname.  (Basically if there's a Kikolski/Kikolska in the world, I'm related to him/her.)  She is a year younger than me, got married two years after I did, and had a baby the year after I did.  Also, she sent me a photo, and while we don't look like sisters or anything, we look enough alike that a stranger would be able to tell we're related. 

Weird. 

[melack]

I keep holding out hope that I'll be able to go visit my fourth cousin in Poland who found me while she was doing some geneology research on our very rare surname.  (Basically if there's a Kikolski/Kikolska in the world, I'm related to him/her.)  She is a year younger than me, got married two years after I did, and had a baby the year after I did.  Also, she sent me a photo, and while we don't look like sisters or anything, we look enough alike that a stranger would be able to tell we're related. 

Weird. 

That reminds of this past summer when a friend and I were planning our trip to Europe. My grandmother really wanted me to go see my distant cousin in the Netherlands. I mean really distant, because my great-great-grandpa made his way from Amsterdam to Port Orchard, WA way back in 1910. I was a little reluctant because a meeting like that has the potential to be very awkward and  on top of that he lives about 40 miles outside of Amsterdam. It ended up being a moot point, since we had to cut Amsterdam out of our itinerary because of time constraints.

[theinevitable]

I know phrases in Polish!

Spastichne Indick (sp?)!!

(Spastic Turkey.)

[jaydub]

I know phrases in Polish!

Spastichne Indick (sp?)!!

(Spastic Turkey.)

Are turkeys indigenous to areas other than the US/Canada?  Or is the term like "elk" in that it applies to a similar looking, unrelated creature (c.f. wapati and European elk) or "vulture".  If not, what relation to the country of the same name is there?

[Carlos del Vaca]

The Polish word for cat is "kot."

That's pretty much all I know.  I bought a teach-yourself-Polish software app in prepartion for my trip there, and I think I looked at it once for about 15 minutes.

[V-Adore]

I'm 100% behind the idea of genealogy tours. My family has never gotten one together mostly because of awkwardness; as far as we can tell, the line headed out of the Netherlands to more or less all ports of Dutch imperialism thereafter, and this is a weird thing to associate with your family name. (For the record, my branch is from California through Puerto Rico, which made it confusing when I was attending school in northwestern Massachusetts and everyone just assumed I was from the Dutch parts of New York.)

[theinevitable]

yeah. This is like how my mom is Chilean. But, her grandfather was... British? And her other grandparents were... Spanish? But also... there was some French, and maybe Russian?

And then my dad's family is like... "Some Irish and Scottish people came over to Boston around 1900, and got married."

[wombat]

Are turkeys indigenous to areas other than the US/Canada?  Or is the term like "elk" in that it applies to a similar looking, unrelated creature (c.f. wapati and European elk) or "vulture".  If not, what relation to the country of the same name is there?

From the OED:
short for TURKEYCOCK or turkeyhen, originally applied to the guineafowl (which was imported through Turkey), and then erroneously to the American bird because it was considered to be a related species.

Where's that Muse person? I thought she was going to handle this sort of question from now on.

[robot_god]

I live in a town that is predominantly populated by poles.  (Nowadays not as much, but still a huge proportion.)  Additionally, I am half polish myself, I have acquaintances that are polish immigrants, and have many friends that are the first generation of polish immigrants.  I can say - with substantial credibility - that the polish not only deserve their sterotypical jokes, but deserve tenfold - nay, onethousandfold - the severity of jokes they receive.

Check this out:  two churches/schools were built here, a few blocks away from each other, in the early 1900's.  One was to be the american school and catholic church, and the other to become a counterpart in which classes and mass were to be conducted in polish.  One was to be named Holy Cross and the other to be named St. Stanislaus Kostka.  The polish school was named Holy Cross, the english speaking school became St. Stanislaus Kostka school.

Fact:  polish people lock their keys in their car on average of once per year.  The more you know.

[jough]

I'm Lithuanian, so that's pretty close to Poland.

MY PEOPLE ARE NEIGHBOURING POLAND AND I APPROVE THIS MESSAGE

[Victoria Waterfield]

Are turkeys indigenous to areas other than the US/Canada?  Or is the term like "elk" in that it applies to a similar looking, unrelated creature (c.f. wapati and European elk) or "vulture".  If not, what relation to the country of the same name is there?

Also Mexico, which is actually where the domestic breed originated.

[jay-ell]

yeah. This is like how my mom is Chilean. But, her grandfather was... British? And her other grandparents were... Spanish? But also... there was some French, and maybe Russian?

And then my dad's family is like... "Some Irish and Scottish people came over to Boston around 1900, and got married."

Similarly, Pedro's mother is Argentine but her father was born and raised in Germany and her mother in Spain. 

My mom's side is like "some white people came over on a boat around 1690 and had about a billion kids." 

[side_show]

The only think I know about the Polish, I learned from "A Street Car Named Desire," which, I think we can all agree is not all the favorable of a view.

Also, JL, I too am related to the few with my last name.

Also, due to my mom being adopted, we never knew her biological family.  Then she found her dad.  I met him and he shared some pictures, including one of my great grandfather who I never new.  Here's a picture of me and my great grandfather side by side which is a little spooky to look at.

[jay-ell]

OMG smells is hawtt! 

It is creepy, sometimes, how much we look like those from whom we're descended.  I'm always amazed at how little about me is unique. 

It makes you wonder what else you've inherited, too.  I never knew my dad's father but apparently I share a lot of personality quirks with him as well (although maybe I picked up some of those from dad?). 

It reminds me, in a sideways or maybe even diagonal way, of Emerson: "In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts."