The recent tragic airplane crash that killed the Polish president and a delegation of nearly 100 eminent Polish citizens en route to a ceremony to commemorate the Katyn Forest Massacre seems, sad to say, to have been entirely avoidable. It recalls stories of an old, wheezy, secondhand school bus carrying a cherished high school sports team to a match over backcountry roads in treacherous weather driven by a distracted driver ending in a fatal rollover. Prepare to be dismayed when a month from now cruel, water-cooler quips and “Polish” jokes surface that turn on some aspect of this perceived lack of sophistication.

Orest Slepokura

(Yeah, well, gallows humour, hopefully.)