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IN THIS ISSUE

VOL. XVIII, NO. 49, DECEMBER 8, 2012

IN THIS ISSUE;

• Eve Cassidy writes about a visit to an ancient city in Poland
• We get letters from Irene Harvalias and Jean Sterling
• Bruce Galway forwards a story about the rescue of a moose
• Pat Moore shares her famous Christmas cake recipe
• Stan French encounters a problem while shopping
• Carol Shoemaker suffers from a common malady
• Sites are recommended by Bruce Galway, Catherine Nesbitt, Jay, Tom Telfer, and Zvonko Springer

Eve Cassidy describes a recent visit to

KRAKOW, POLAND

My husband and I visited Krakow during the last week in November. We had been told by friends what a wonderful city it was, and we were not disappointed.

Our flight left London Stansted quite early in the morning and we were due to land in Krakow at 10:30 a.m. Unfortunately, there was fog at Krakow airport and we were transferred to Katowice. We then had a bus journey of about an hour and a half. This gave us chance to see something of the countryside, which seemed to consist of a great deal of silver birch forest.

We had booked to stay in a hotel/apartment we had researched on the Internet. We were very pleased with the accommodation, which was in a 100-year-old building very near to the main square and attractions. Our room housed a large tiled stove which was the original central heating. Of course, everything had been modernized and replaced by gas central heating and modern bathroom appliances, etc. Each floor of apartments was provided with a fully-fitted kitchen, with every coffee-making appliance you could wish for; also free WIFI and an up-to-date Apple computer for our use.

We soon started our tour of the city, and in a short walk we were in the Main Market Square, which has been preserved virtually intact since the Middle Ages, and is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. There are many beautiful buildings surrounding it. One of the most attractive is a long low building, the Cloth Hall, which has been operating since 1556, with some alterations along the way. The interior is divided into trading stalls, above which are the old emblems of the merchant guilds. Many of the stalls are selling amber, which is picked up on the Baltic Coast.

The most amazing museum was opened in 2010, the City of Krakow History Museum, which is entered in the corner of the Cloth Hall and is a vast area 5M under the main square. This tells the story of Krakow from earliest times to the present day. This is a truly multi-media experience, with many pictures, artefacts, and films where you can see history brought to life.

One of the most attractive churches, St. Mary´s Basilica, was built in the 14th century in Early Gothic style. The church has two towers of different heights, the largest of which at the ninth level has a Gothic cupola constructed in 1478, surrounded by eight tower turrets, and was used as the city´s watchtower. Today a bugle call is performed by a musician every hour in four directions from 54 metres above the city.

One of the reasons why Krakow has retained so many buildings intact was the fact that during the German occupation of Krakow for 55 months during the Second World War, it was the headquarters of the German High Command, and therefore spared the bombing that cities such as Warsaw received. The Germans also insisted that the town be renamed Krakau.

There were many thousands of Jews living in Krakow in 1939. During the first part of the occupation, the Germans forcibly transported the Jews to a special ghetto area on the east side of the Vistula River. They surrounded it by walls and had a few manned entrances. Only a very few men were then permitted to work in the city. Most were forced to build work camps nearby, to which those remaining were removed if they had survived being killed, starved, or transported to concentration camps. There are many outings advertised to Auschwitz-Birkenau.

We took a number of journeys by tram or bus, which we found quite easy. Young people would offer their seats to us. The transport system is very good, with trams running very frequently to all areas of the city.

The city was much larger than we expected. It has a number of very modern shopping malls, which were set away from the Old Town Centre. They contained most of the European companies, Zara, Massimo Dutti, C&A, Benetton, etc., and were crowded with Christmas shoppers. In the Old Town Square on the last day we were fortunate to find the open-air Christmas market, where we sampled the hot spiced punch and special smoked cheese, which was heated over charcoal. There were some very nice Christmas decorations and wooden items for sale, along with amber jewellery.

We found the citizens very friendly, and did not feel at all threatened. The young people would speak English If we needed help. Older people and taxi drivers don´t speak English, as they were forced to learn Russian during the occupation. The Polish food consists of a lot of pork, turkey, and beef-filled dumplings. One of the food items found on most street corners were large pretzels, more bread than biscuit. I would have liked to try one but after a very substantial breakfast, I never managed it.

We had been expecting the weather to be cold and wore very warm clothing. As it happened, it was not very cold - about 10-12C during our visit. In fact, it was colder in Cambridge, UK. We noticed that the people of Krakow were sensibly dressed, not as is the case sometimes in England during the winter.

Other places of interest we visited:

The Wawel, which is located on a hill near the centre of the city. This contains the Royal Castle, which was built in Italianate style, and Wawel Cathedral. We were a little disappointed that we could not obtain tickets to visit most of the attractions. Unfortunately, during the whole month of November, these attractions are free, and most of the tickets had been allocated by 9:30 a.m.

The Wieliczka Salt Mine, some 25 minutes by bus, which attracts 1,000,000 tourists a year. We first had to walk down 380 steps to get to the first of nine levels. It contains 23 chambers connected by 2.5 metres of corridors at three levels, 64 to135 metres below ground. There are many sculptures done by the miners, and a church, which is lit by salt chandeliers, which is used every Sunday for services. The altar and religious scenes are carved from the glistening salt. There is also a ballroom, which is regularly used for parties. This also takes about three hours to tour round. You surface via a very fast miners´ lift.

Another museum, which has just been opened, is in the former factory run by Oscar Schindler as depicted in the film "Schindler´s List". This is a moving tribute to the lives of the Jews during the occupation, and contains many filmed accounts from those living during this time. Some of the most interesting were from workers in the factory. The whole experience takes about three hours to complete.

CORRESPONDENCE

Irene Harvalias writes: I LOVED the article about Vagueness. I mean, like ... who wouldn´t, you know? It drives me totally insane when I hear my grandchildren speak like that!

And from Jean Sperling, on the same subject: I, like, enjoyed reading Tony´s essay? It was, you know, interesting, and stuff?

Bruce Galway forwards this story written by Paul Dennis, Conservation Officer, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, about

A MOOSE RESCUE

Sunday, April 15, 2012, dawned cloudy and cool in the little community of Terrace Bay, located along the north shore of Lake Superior. My friend and fellow conservation officer Jeff Anderson stopped by the house, my wife Eleanor made fresh coffee, and we were enjoying a day off now that the fishing season for walleye had finally closed.

When the phone rang that morning, it was to alert us that a moose was helplessly mired in a spillway next to the town´s pulp mill. Normally, the hustle and bustle of a busy factory would discourage wildlife from getting too close, but in this case, the mill had been idle for quite some time and the mill yard was quiet and tranquil.

(click on any image to enlarge)

The large man-made ponds that surround the property are part of a system used to treat waste water. They are all fenced except for the one closest to the buildings. It´s unclear just how the young adult bull wandered into the first one - maybe he was fleeing a vehicle on the nearby road, or perhaps he just thought it was a marsh. Whatever the reason, he attempted to cross the football-field-sized settling pond and began breaking through the deep layers of sodden wood fibre.

We quickly hatched a plan and began gathering some rope, hip waders and snowshoes, while Jeff grabbed a patrol truck, uniform, and shotgun. It was important to be prepared for any eventuality! When we all rendezvoused at the site, we were faced with the saddest-looking animal you could imagine.

Utilizing the snowshoes to stay on top of the layers of fibre, we were able to approach the bull, fasten a chain knot around his neck and attempt to pull him free, utilizing the winch on Jeff´s patrol truck. Unfortunately, we could not pull him horizontally with sufficient force to drag him out without the risk of injuring him, so we needed a new approach.

Mill staff came to the rescue and arrived on the scene with a large tracked loader equipped with a boom grapple. The rest of us shovelled a space around the moose´s chest, around which we were able to secure a heavy line. With this new ability to lift and pull from around the animals girth, the big bull was slowly drawn out of the muck and onto the bank. It appeared as though he had been there overnight and he was near death from exhaustion and stress. Remarkably, by supporting him in a prone position, giving him a couple bottles of water to drink, and rubbing his legs to restore circulation, he began to perk up!

After 20 minutes and several attempts, he stood up on wobbly legs for the first time in many hours. He tolerated us as we held him up and later, as he began walking with our assistance. It was a very strange experience to calmly accompany him for the long walk around the pond´s perimeter, but we all felt the same heart-warming feeling when he quietly stepped into the bush under his own power, and disappeared from sight.

Pat Moore writes: Once again this year I´ve had requests for my Christmas cake recipe, so here goes. Please keep this in your files, as I am NOT going to type this up again:

VODKA CHRISTMAS CAKE

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1 cup water
1 tsp. salt
1 cup brown sugar
4 large eggs
2 cups dried fruit
1 bottle Vodka
Lemon juice
Nuts

Sample a cup of vodka to check quality. Take a large bowl, check the vodka again to be sure it is of the highest quality, then repeat. Turn on the electric mixer. Beat one cup of butter in a large fluffy bowl. Add 1 teaspoon of sugar. Beat again. At this point, it is best to make sure the vodka is still OK. Try another cup just in case.

Then, turn off the mixerer thingy. Break 2 eegs and add to the bowl and chuck in the cup of dried fruit. Pick the fruit up off the floor, wash it and put it in the bowl a piece at a time trying to count it. Mix on the turner. If the fried druit getas stuck in the beaterers, just pry it loose with a drewscriver Sample the vodka to test for tonsisticity.

Next, sift 2 cups of salt, or something. Check the vodka. Now shift the lemon juice and strain your nuts. Add one table. Add a spoon of sugar, or somefink. Whatever you can find. Greash the oven. Turn the cake tin 360 degrees and try not to fall over. Don´t forget to beat off the turner.

Finally, throw the bowl through the window. Finish the vodka and wipe the counter with the cat....

Stan French has decided he is

GETTING TOO OLD TO SHOP

Had a little problem at the Bay yesterday.

Apparently when the cashier said, "Strip down, facing me," she was talking about my debit card.

Carol Shoemaker forwards this piece, which she says describes her to a T:

THE BUT FIRST SYNDROME

I think this happens when we retire, and have plenty of time to do everything and don´t have to rush, but I hope I´m wrong!

I have recently been diagnosed with the "But first Syndrome." You know, it´s when I decide to do the laundry, I start down the hall and notice the newspaper on the table. OK, I´m going to do the laundry....

But first I´m going to read the newspaper. Then I notice the mail on the table. OK, I´ll just put the newspaper in the recycle stack....

But first I´ll look through that pile of mail and see if there are any bills to be paid. Yes, now where´s the chequebook? Oops ... there´s the empty glass from yesterday on the coffee table. I´m going to look for that chequebook.

But first I need to put the glass in the sink. I head for the kitchen, look out the window, notice my poor flowers need a drink of water. I put the glass in the sink, and darn it, there´s the remote for the TV on the kitchen counter. What´s it doing here? I´ll just put it away....

But first I need to water those plants. Head for door and ... Aaaagh! Stepped on the cat. Cat needs to be fed. Okay, I´ll put that remote away and water the plants....

But first I need to feed the cat....

End of day: Laundry is not done, newspapers are still on the floor, glass is still in the sink, bills are unpaid, chequebook is still lost, and the cat ate the remote control. And when I try to figure out how come nothing got done all day, I´m baffled because I know I was busy all day. I realize this condition is serious and I´ll get help....

But first ... I think I´ll check my e-mail!

SUGGESTED WEBSITES

Bruce Galway forwards a link to a video of man vs. wild animals, the story of the endangered blue whales:

Bruce also sends this link to a video of the sound of wine: 10 musicians playing a variety of glass instruments:

Catherine Nesbitt forwards the URL to a video about what clogs up our arteries:

Jay sends this link to Ellen´s site when she announces that Canadians will be eligible to enter a US contest:

Tom Telfer sends the URL of a video of the old Royal Navy gun race, a great tradition now lost to modern rules and regulations of the civilian world:

Zvonko Springer forwards a sequence of pictures from the fortress of his home town, Osijek. The fortress has a long history, going back to the Romans, the Croatians since the 6th century, the Osmans (Turks) for two centuries, and its liberation by Croatians in the 18th century:

Here is an important petition to sign, to stop the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TTP), one of the worst and most aggressive of a number of free trade agreements being pushed and negotiated by conservative and neoliberal governments on behalf of the corporate sector. Like the proposed treaty with China, it limits our government´s power to regulate in the public interest:

Some of Norway´s most notorious criminals are doing time in the world´s first eco-prison. The focus is on an environmentally friendly jail sentence. It´s aimed at easing the transition for prisoners about to be set free. Al Jazeera´s Nick Clark reports on an experiment which is producing positive results:

To check out the features of the "freedictionary", which changes daily, go to