Remembering Zbigniew Brzezinski

In 2012, I had the honor of chatting briefly with Zbigniew Brzezinski at the Polish Embassy in Washington D.C., where he gave an inspiring speech about a childhood encounter in his native Poland with Jan Karski, who had just been awarded posthumously the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Brzezinski himself had received the Medal in 1981 [...]

Cardinal Cupich Celebrates
150 Years of Chicago’s Oldest Polish Parish

It is often difficult for non-Catholics to understand the traditions and rituals of the Roman Catholic Church. Sometimes it is difficult for me to understand them, even though I was raised in them. I watched spellbound on Sunday, April 23, the throngs gathered inside St. Stanislaus Kostka, the mother church of Polish Catholicism in Chicago, [...]

“Busia: Seasons on the Farm with My Polish Grandmother,” New Memoir by Leonard Kniffel

PolishSon.com has published a new memoir titled Busia: Seasons on the Farm with My Polish Grandmother by Leonard Kniffel, Chicago writer and publisher of this blog. The book chronicles one year in the life of a young boy and his grandmother on a farm in Michigan in the 1950s. “This warm and wonderful story, reminiscent [...]

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year:
Letter to Friends and Family

The highlight of 2016 for me was the 50th high school reunion of the Armada (Michigan) High School class of ’66. Reconnecting with old friends was wonderful, seeing what interesting and varied lives my classmates are living. Even more rewarding was talking with two of our greatest teachers, Mrs. Motherwell and Mrs. Corson, or “Winnie” [...]

Veterans Day: A Salute to Uncle Stan,
Awarded the Purple Heart during World War II

Copies of thirty-nine letters, some written in “V-Mail,” to my uncle Stanley Misiuk (April 7, 1915–March 9, 1999) during World War II, were recently given to me by his son, my cousin David Misiuk, and his wife Patti. Saved all through the years by his father, some of the letters were written by Stanley’s sister [...]

Previous Posts

Cardinal Cupich Celebrates
150 Years of Chicago’s Oldest Polish Parish
04.30.2017
“Faultless to a Fault”: A Prescient Look
at Zenophobia Today from 25 Years Ago
04.22.2017
“Busia: Seasons on the Farm with My Polish Grandmother,” New Memoir by Leonard Kniffel
04.19.2017
Recommended: Afterimage
Wajda’s Masterful Final Film
03.29.2017

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