Over the weekend we went to visit Magda and Ryszard, who had recently returned from Poland. I asked how the mood was after the plane crash in Russia that killed 97 people, most of them top men in government, including President Lech Kaczynski, who subsequently was buried - amid much controversy - in Wawel Castle.
"The first thing I heard," said Ryszard, "were jokes."
It was just like the old days (1980s) when Poles dealt with hardship by laughing in its face. After 20 years of democratic capitalism the survival mechanism has not changed. You may question the taste of some of the jokes - one was morbidly anti-Russian, one unfavorably compared the recently deceased president with Pilsudski's horse - but not their importance.
Niech zyja zarty. (Long live jokes.)
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