I’ve been waiting for this for soooo long. Finally
My honor is to give away one of my flashlights I’ve modded by myself.
This is 3-LED Wurkkos which I call “summer flashlight”. You can read about it here (no battery included)
Anyway, it serves me well up to this day but I think it’s time to find her a new home :heart_eyes:
The pleasure is entirely mine. I’ve attended so many GAWs here, making one myself is just a pure pleasure and honor.
I’m going to ship worldwide unless shipping cost exceeds the value of the flashlight.
To participate you need to answer one question:
What is your first thought when you hear “Poland”?
I expect honesty even if you associate it with unpleasant things. It’ll not influence your winning chance by any way.
The winner will be drawn with random.org as soon as I turn 1000th post.
May the luck be with you friends !
Important : please limit your posts to 1 in this thread :email:
Well, my first reaction is not a thought but emotion.
Sadness.
The reason for this is that I’m really disappointed with what has happened to our country over the last years and I’m scared about the outlook for the future.
Well, I cheered when I saw you (ADDED: almost) exceeded the 1000 but I’m not so cheerful now. Nevertheless - congratulations. Thank you for being here. And, last and least but still highly appreciated, thank you for doing this GAW. This is a really sweet light.
Modded lights are always special because they are so much personal than stock ones….
My first thought is to wonder if a story I was once told is true. Someone with Polish friends told me they had a tradition where leading up to Christmas a live fish was kept in the bath, before being eaten on Christmas day.
It has always seemed just unusual enough to have some possibility of truth to me. But also with a real chance it was just an eclectic family tradition and nothing at all to do with Poland.
This is true. You buy fish a few days before Christmas to ensure availability. Then you kill it just before preparation. But you have to keep it alive in the meantime and letting it swim in the bath is the simplest way.
ADDED: Though I’m not sure how many people still do it today. Nobody close to me does. Nowadays supply of everything is so much better than during communism….
My first thought about Poland is my friend Chris who occupied the cubicle next to mine at a former job. He sadly passed away too young. He was Polish, but born in US. I really don’t know where Polack jokes got started, because he was one of the smartest guys I’ve ever known. He also got me into flashlights something like 20 years ago.
When I was a teenager I volunteered at a hospital. Ended up befriending a Polish gentleman who’s name was Joe. He had lost a leg in WWII, in a cavalry charge against a Panzer Division. I looked it up, it really happened. Think how tough you have to be to go through with that.
RIP Joe, fortunately he led a long life after the war.
My first thought, probably because I was looking at COVID numbers this AM, is that I had no idea that Poland had so many people! Thought it was much closer in size to Czechoslovakia. I know that no longer exists but I grew up a descendent of Slovak immigrants in a community with many of them. The polish people were similar and Dad said he could understand a lot of polish even though he couldn’t speak it. It was also an era of many “Polock” jokes. To be fair we also had a lot of Norwegian, Slovak, and Sweed jokes as well. Though I do think the Polock jokes were more numerous.
The word that should come to mind is hałuski! I learned to make this from my dad who learned it from his Slovak mother. Our version is probably closer to spaetzle only without the nutmeg and caraway. Wonderful comfort food. That is what should come to mind!
Agree on the sadness. World wide problem. We all know of our differences. Not as different as thought though. Power hungry people have figured out that it is way too easy to exploit people’s differences and get people very angry about things that aren’t really meaningful and make them ignore the meaningful damage that is being done. This is how power can be attained and held. Sad.
Not in for the GAW, but thanks for this and congrats on the forthcoming 1000 posts
As for the question: “What is your first thought when you hear “Poland”?”, many things come to my mind… but one of the first places my mind takes me is the city Lodz (where I was in december 2018, due to a meeting of an international project I worked in), the word “Dziękuję” (that I learned with my polish colleagues) and it reminds me snow (’cause when I was there, it started snowing )
Keep up the BLF Gaw spirit alive and, again, congrats
First thing I think of is Pierogi
The second is an old friend of the family, who, at 15 was sent here by his parents to avoid wwII. They were Jewish, and he was the only one to survive the war. He passed away last year at the age of 94, I believe.
The list of Polish composers is quite long, but even a cultural Neanderthal like me knows Fryderyk Chopin. Other “classic” music is (mostly mis)used to impress people with my stereo-set, but when I’m alone I like to listen to Chopin. And Cuban music. And Clapton .
Very nice of you to host a GAW. Let’s reinstate that old BLF-tradition.
)
