For Polish speakers, your post is like watching someone dive from a high platform onto a cactus. You have our attention!

By the way, I was on the big island of Hawai‘i last month and I drove past Pszyk Road. As well as I can discover, this was named for a Polish immigrant whose descendants now have names like Harmony Wai‘olohe Pszyk.

This makes me extremely happy. I also think there should be exit visas based on last name. Let's not repeat the tragedy of this guy: http://www.thebaseballcube.com/players/profile.asp?P=Joe-Gwo...

My eldest daughter, a native Ponglish speaker, came out with Thankuję a few years back.

I've been dining off it since.

> Like watching someone dive from a high platform onto a cactus

This is a hilariously colorful analogy. Is it a translation of a Polish analogy, or are you just a very descriptive English speaker?

Maybe the former, definitely the latter; see http://idlewords.com/2007/04/the_alameda_weehawken_burrito_t... or any of the articles on his blog.

I am just a descriptive English speaker. Thank you for the kind words!

Thank you sir! I thought of you while I was writing it, and hoped that I would not make you feel embarrassed on my behalf.

It was an awesome post!

*"ogonki"

Right, thanks!

Ouch, that asterisk does some seriously confusing double-duty in a thread like this...

In Internet forum speak, the asterisk means "I meant to say" or "You meant to say".

In linguistics, the asterisk means "This form is not attested (we don't have examples of people using it)" or "This form would be considered mistaken by speakers".

That means that the forum usage of asterisks is something like "I should have said X" while the linguistics use of asterisks is something like "I shouldn't have said X". :-(

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asterisk#Linguistics

"In linguistics, an asterisk is placed before a word or phrase to indicate that it is not used, or there are no records of it being in use."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asterisk#Typography

"Asterisks may denote corrections to misspelling or misstatements in previous electronic messages"