Wake up, get up, stand up

There's never enough reminding people how important avoiding sedentary lifestyle is and this article in the NTY does that in style.

Kowalczyk wrestles out gold

In a thrilling sprint finish that made history, Justyna Kowalczyk shook off Marit Bjoergen's desperate attack and snatched her first Olympic gold medal. Here, here, here, here and here is more reporting from around the world.

More British comedy

Here's a rerun of Delve Special, a madly hilarious series that follows the ups and downs, more often downs, of David Lander, an inept investigative reporter. Here are other spoof BBC shows that can be replayed online.

a victory for justice
at her Majesty's pleasure = in prison

Cultural disgrace

It's a disgrace when urbanites bitch about how boring their life can get in big cities. I'm thinking specifically about Poznań where I've been living for over seven years now (Jesus, what has become of me?) and where whinging about the state of the local culture scene has been vocal and frequent. In reality, such an attitude is growing more and more difficult to defend in view of the city's quite impressive and diverse record of events and it seems all those who keep complaining are now squarely faced with the fact that, possibly, they never wanted to participate in the first place.

Yes, Poles are lazy and tend to believe things happen outside them and their communities, so instead of joining and contributing, they would rather wait and see what happens, and then criticise failures. I suspect this has a lot to do with their strong sense of being domestic, private, withdrawn.

OK, by and large I'm no different and my first instinct is to rush home, amplified by my job that involves a lot of intense interaction with people, which possibly saps most of my communal resources and propels me home as soon as it's possible. There are days, however, when I do go out and take advantage of what Poznań has to offer. Last week, for instance, being no expert in the field, not even a fan, I ventured to attend a flute concert in the new concert hall of Poznań Academy of Music. Finale of the first International Flute Festival, sponsored by the EEA grant, it featured solo performances by two Reykyavik-based flautists, Martial Nardeau and Gudrún Birgisdóttir. Educated in France, Nardeau put forward a praiseworthy interpretation of three classic compositions from the 18th and 19th century, whereas Birgisdóttir went for a handful of contemporary Icelandic pieces that combined flute sound with drama. At one point during the evening, both musicians joined forces in what was arguably the most compelling part of the concert.

Spread leisurely over about an hour, the show was a great reminder that it's my obligation to keep discovering. And it's not just flute music that was new here, but the place, the newly-erected Aula Nova concert hall, sprawled right in the middle of Poznań and with its doors wide open to visitors.

The new poor

The Great Recession is pushing middle-class Americans out of the jobmarket and into the territory that looks distinctly un-American - permanent unemployment, reliance on social safety net and gloomy outlook on the future. New York Times has started to run a new series on the emergence of a new social group of the new poor in the US.

British sitcoms

There's something about British shows that compels me to return to them and look for more in the hope that their newer productions will match the classics like Fawlty Towers in terms of sense of humour and creativity. Apart from Ricky Gervais's Office, whose two seasons I swallowed in a matter of hours, I've had a go with the Royale Family, a gritty comedy set in a working-class family in the north of England, the Vicar of Dibley, a sitcom centered around a rural community that is stunned to discover that their new vicar is a female, and BBC Radio 4's radio comedy Fags, Mags and Bags that revolves around a corner shop in Glasgow.

Some good language:
- buy from a catalogue,
- He's been cheeky to Sharon, mom,
- These jeans have gone at the crotch,
- a tangerine,
- a schoolgirl figure,
- do sb a perm,
- a career woman,
- He's on disability allowance,
- stop for a brew (=tea),
- talk of the devil,
- in a cunning disguise.

Wie viele Apfelsorten gibt es?

Nach lange Jahren als Elektriker hat mein Vater letzendlich seine berufliche Karierre beendet und soll mehr Zeit und Energie fürs Garden haben, darum er sich mit meinem Mutter kümmert. Er hat sich seit ewig für Äpfel interresiert und konnte verschiedene Apfelsorten nennen und beschreiben. Erstaunlicherweise für mich konnte er ihres Geschmack ganz genau bezeichnen (ob sie säuerlich oder süßlich sind, saftig, erfrischend, weich oder mit knackigem Fruchtfleisch) und wusste, wie man mit unterschidlichen Apfelsorten im Garten umgeht. Es ist interessant, dass es die endliche Vielfalt Apfelsorten gibt, aber am meisten Supermärkte bieten nur einen kleinen Teil von ihnen an.