Polish radio and 80s music

I was sitting in a bus yesterday morning between Zakopane and Krakow, a journey which should have taken two hours, but took three, thereby causing me to miss my train to Warsaw, and, as if that wasn't bad enough, I was forced to sit through a barrage of Nik Kershaw, Culture Club and Bonnie Tyler as the driver had tuned the radio to RMF FM.

Poland's two most popular radio stations, RMF FM and Radio Zet play, almost exclusively as far as I can tell, hits from the first half of the 80s. Mike Oldfield's Moonlight Shadow, the Cutting Crew I Just died in Your Arms, Status Quo's In the Army Now, the Bangles Manic Monday, to mention just a few, are all played as if they were contemporary hit singles.

Now it's not as if these stations are 80s stations - they do play some other stuff as well. And it's also not as if Poland is currently going through an 80s revival. They were playing the same songs ten years ago equally as often as they do now.

My question is why do they do it? Why I am I forced to hear these songs that throw me back 20 years and leave me with a song in my head that I would really rather not have? Is it, as someone once said to me, because the royalties for 80s music are cheaper? Surely 90s music is cheaper now too, or 60s or 70s?

Eating cake (or not)

I was recently accused of wanting to have my cake and eat it.

"You want to have your cake and eat it," somebody said, giving me a serious, critical look.

Apparently this is a bad thing.

But what's the point of having a cake if you can't eat it?

A few questions of a satorial nature

A lot of men are wearing dark suit jackets with jeans these days. I've tried it myself, but, although I quite like the idea, it just doesn't seem to work for me. And, after a bit of scrutiny, I have begun to wonder whether it really works for anyone else.

Indeed, is it ever right to wear a suit jacket with anything other than the matching suit trousers?

But it is possible to get dark grey or black sports jackets. Maybe it would be better to wear these with jeans. But if not jeans, then what else does one wear with this type of jacket? Non-matching black or grey trousers wouldn't do. And brown would be out because everyone knows that combining black and brown is a highly questionable thing to do when it comes to men's fashion(though I've never quite figured out why. Is dark grey and brown alright?).

I have the same problem with black and dark grey trousers. What jacket do you wear them with?

Navy blue? I don't like navy blue very much.

I find black generally is a difficult colour. Odd that it should be the base colour of so many people's wardrobes. I was looking for some black shoes the other day, in a desperate attempt to find something to wear with the black trousers I'd just bought to wear at work.

Very hard. I don't like black shoes.

Now brown shoes. Ah, a shoe should be brown! Brown brings out the shoeyness of shoes in all its leathery glory in a way black just fails to do. When I was looking for those black shoes I found a pair that were sort of alright. Then I found a beautiful pair of brown shoes, I mean, stunning, really. And then I discovered that both pairs were the same design, just that one was black, the other brown. So I bought the black ones. And they're sort of alright.

Now I need a jacket to go with those trousers and shoes...

Fingers and thumbs

In England, when we want to ensure something beyond our control either does or doesn't happen we cross our fingers. I cross my index and middle fingers on my right hand. I think most English people do the same. And it brings us good luck. We all know that.

In Poland they hold their thumbs.

What an odd thing to do! What on earth can be the point of holding ones' thumbs?

But wait! Before we condemn this thumb holding as childish nonsense, we must consider that it may have some benefits. It may be that such things are country specific and that holding ones' thumbs in Poland works just as well as crossing ones' fingers in England.

(But that cannot be because we know that crossing fingers is a universal gesture of good luck.)

Or it may be that it's specific to nationality. So a Pole may be advised to hold his thumbs even if he was in England.

(But what would be the point of that, for in England we cross our fingers?)

Or could it be that both techniques work equally well in both countries?

(In that case, why aren't we holding our thumbs in England? It is, after all, a lot easier.)

But there you have it! Thumb holding clearly does not work. The very fact that finger crossing is more difficult proves the greater efficacy of this technique. Thumb holding is clearly for those who are too lazy or inept to cross their fingers.

And if that is not enough, there is more evidence. Just look at Poland's unfortunate past. Can a country with a such a sad history of foreign invasion, loss of sovereignty, repression and genocide ever be considered to have experienced good luck? I suggest that Poles have been wrong all these years, erroneously holding their thumbs, when they should have been crossing their fingers. Far from bringing good luck, all that thumb holding has in fact had the opposite effect and brought the country and its people to the brink of ruin.

People of Poland! Is it not time to stop holding your thumbs?

How do you balance on a bicycle?

The answer to this question is probably way too scientific for me to understand, but I have recently been wondering how it is that you can balance on a bicycle when it's moving but not when it's standing still. What difference does the fact that the bicycle is moving make?

If anyone out there could explain this to me in simple non-scientific layman's terms it would certainly be a relief. At the moment I'm somewhat paranoid that my bike will simply fall over while I'm riding it.

Is the Pope a Catholic?

When John Paul II died I was fascinated by the numerous articles and retrospectives about him. He seemed an astonishing man, with a vast wealth of knowledge and experience and I gained a great respect for him. And Benedict XVI seems a worthy successor, who is, I'm sure, no less learned.

But what I don't understand is how men of immense learning can be such faithful Christians. In my experience, most people, as soon as they learn a thing or two about the world, start to question the existence of God, especially the idea of a specifically Christian God. It also seems obvious that much of the Bible is little more than legend, or at best a historical document that should be as open to questioning and interpretation as any other. Religious devotion is for the ignorant, not the learned.

Maybe, having grown up in an English Protestant environment I'm approaching the subject from a perspective that immediately puts me at odds with it. But Karol Wojtyla and Jozef Ratzinger are Europeans - we share a heritage with more similarities than differences. So my question is this: With all that learning behind him, is the Pope really a Catholic?

The best beer in Poland

I think all Polish beer tastes the same.
Does it?
If it doesn't, which is the best?
And which won't give you the hangover from hell?