Polish

WARSAW, Poland -- Witold Lutoslawski, 81, a modern classical composer who led the emergence of contemporary Polish music after World War II, died Monday in Warsaw.Composer Krzysztof Penderecki, one of the leaders of the Polish school who followed Mr. Lutoslawski, called his death an enormous loss for Polish music. "This death cannot be expressed, as the man who created the great part of Polish 20th-century music has gone," Mr. Penderecki told the PAP news agency.Mr. Lutoslawski created a unique style in modern classical music, considered by many to be equal to that of Claude Debussy and Bela Bartok.

After years of gaining fans the old fashioned way - self-produced albums, incessant touring - the time came in the summer of 2009 for Dr. Dog to graduate from low-fi psychedelic folk group to a fully formed band, with the confidence to rise above knock-off Beatles comparisons. Around then, the Philadelphia sextet left tiny Park the Van Records for the much larger ANTI- label, and producer-extraordinaire Rob Schnapf (Elliott Smith, Beck) signed on for the group's next record.

The nice ladies of Polish National Alliance Council No. 21 were ladling ginger snap gravy over potato dumplings at their Eastern Avenue headquarters yesterday afternoon.For $4.50, diners at the club's monthly hot dinner got three big pieces of sour beef, a heavy pair of dumplings, a roll with butter and red beets."Very good," said Delores Bird, who traveled from Dundalk for the treat.Said Frank Ament, who accompanied Ms. Bird to Fells Point for a little dancing at the Joseph Center before dinner, said: "Everything is just as nice as you want it."

The Roland Park tennis team came into this week's Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland A Conference tournament on a roll, and nobody was able to stop it. After going undefeated for a third consecutive regular season, the Reds finished off another perfect year Friday by edging host McDonogh and Bryn Mawr and winning their fourth straight A Conference team title. The Reds won one singles and one doubles title while earning spots in four of the five championship matches.

Since winning the Nobel Prize in 1980, Czeslaw Milosz has worked his way into American literary consciousness more than any other Polish writer. Although his reputation rests primarily on his poetry -- fellow poet and Nobel winner Joseph Brodsky has judged him "one of the greatest poets of our time, perhaps the greatest" -- Mr. Milosz is at least as celebrated for his nonfiction indictment of life under communism, "The Captive Mind."An exile since 1951 and a U.S. resident since 1960, Mr. Milosz has been witness to a vast panorama of 20th-century life -- Poland under Hitlerism and Stalinism, the intellectual hothouse of '50s France, a democratic United States, a laid-back California.

WARSAW, Poland -- The race for the Polish presidency began in earnest last week with neither commanding contenders nor coherent programs, neither political know-how nor splashy spending.But the campaign already is a contest of flamboyance and pragmatism, charisma and competence, suspected authoritarianism and avowed democracy.The two sides of Poland's new political coin are both represented in this first free postwar presidential election by luminaries of the Solidarity labor union, vanguard of the popular uprisings that finally swept Communists from power throughout the Soviet bloc last year.

WARSAW, Poland -- The bitter Polish presidential election campaign drew to a close last night after a final week of what a Warsaw daily termed "the political gutter."An extraordinarily hostile and coordinated campaign was waged against the outsider who in the first round Nov. 25 unexpectedly eliminated Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki from this weekend's runoff and demonstrated to Poland's new, post-Communist leadership just how tenuous is its grip on power.The Solidarity labor movement, which has run the country for more than a year, mobilized state institutions, a faithful press, an allegedly apolitical church and undemocratic extremists to oppose mysterious emigre Stanislaw Tyminski, whose popularity at the polls threatened Solidarity leader Lech Walesa's ascension to the presidency.

BERLIN -- A former labor activist from the Solidarity trade union appeared to have come in first in Poland's hotly contested presidential election yesterday, but exit polls indicated that he would not win the majority he would need to avoid a runoff in two weeks. Donald Tusk, 48, an unabashed free-market supporter who advocated a 15 percent flat tax for Poland, received 38.4 percent of the vote, according to exit polls last night commissioned by Polish state television. The official vote tally was not expected until today.

ROZALIN, Poland -- Tadeusz Bojanowski was up at dawn to check on his cows when the private army of Krystyna Krysowska rolled by in a fleet of red cars. The cars stopped, doors slammed, and Mr. Bojanowski watched 16 armed men advance to the gates of a neighboring estate. They seized the place without firing a shot.That was nearly two years ago. This month Mr. Bojanowski may finally see the last of the hired guns go home if, as expected, the nation's highest court declares Ms. Krysowska the winner in a long-running dispute over the 175-acre estate she took by force.

Alfred B. Wisniewski, a retired bar owner who led the effort to build a Polish World War II memorial in Baltimore, died of cancer Thursday at the Veterans Affairs Rehabilitation and Extended Care Center in Baltimore. The Fells Point resident was 80. Born in Baltimore and raised on Chester Street, he graduated from Holy Rosary Parochial School before attending Polytechnic Institute. He worked briefly at the Glenn L. Martin aircraft plant in Middle River before enlisting in the Navy and serving in North Africa during World War II. Returning to Baltimore, he purchased Eddie's Cafe, a once-popular waterfront tavern at Pratt and South streets.

Spice company McCormick & Co. Inc. said Tuesday it had entered into an agreement to buy a Polish food company, continuing the Sparks company's expansion overseas. McCormick plans to purchase all the shares of privately held Kamis SA in a $291 million deal. Kamis makes spices, seasonings, flavorings and mustards, with distribution in Russia and other parts of Central and Eastern Europe. Kamis had sales of about $105 million last year. The deal, which is subject to regulatory approval, is expected to be completed in September.

Stanislaw Edward Bask Mostwin, a highly decorated World War II Polish freedom fighter whose exploits were worthy of a Hollywood film, died Monday of arrhythmia at his Ruxton home. He was 94. Recalling his years in the underground during World War II, Mr. Mostwin described the experience for the old Sunday Sun Magazine in 1986 as "fantastic, a James Bond life for a young man. " He added, "You are defending your home. There is no hesitation, you just have to go and do it. The alternative is not to be yourself.

When Laura Neuman turned down a half-million-dollar salary in 1999 in order to take over a Columbia technology company nearing bankruptcy, she discovered two things. After raising $17 million in venture capital for Matrics Inc., which was later sold for $230 million, the Annapolis resident learned she could trust her business instincts. She also realized that Columbia's downtown held little appeal for single young professionals like herself. Now 46, married and the mother of two young children, Neuman is back at work in Howard County with a different life perspective and a different job. As the new CEO of the Howard County Economic Development Authority, she heads a public-private partnership that works to attract new businesses and create jobs to boost the county's tax base.

Connect the dots: The Baltimore Polish Festival is being cancelled for the first time in nearly four decades because of higher city fees. And the 13 city employees who were arrested Friday after drinking and gambling during work hours represent half of the city staff responsible for setting up festivals. So the punishment should be to require the 13 employees to set up the Polish Festival for free just before they are all fired. That would be a win/win result for the city. David F. Tufaro, Baltimore

Warm, melodic polka music still fills the Polish Home Club in Fells Point every Saturday night, where rounds of the house drink — golden, honey-flavored Krupnik — are passed around the bar and quickly drained. But the decidedly older crowd — one member recalled the first time he walked into the club, still recovering from injuries he sustained fighting in World War II — has thinned as residents from the Polish community die off, with many of their children already having left the neighborhood.

Maryland plays a Florida State team Wednesday night that is top-ranked in the nation in defense and features a 26-year-old shot blocker who never played in high school or the Amateur Athletic Union but honed his game on military bases in the Middle East, where the temperature climbed above 115 degrees. The Seminoles (19-7, 9-3 Atlantic Coast Conference) build themselves around size and length — attributes that are an integral part of the coaching staff's plan of complicating life for opposing scorers.

The highway helps. If it weren't for that, Revolutionary War hero Casimir Pulaski's name may have been buried in obscurity long ago. But the name of the Polish-born general has probably been uttered by everyone familiar with Pulaski Highway, making the rededication of his monument in Patterson Park yesterday notable -- even for those who know little about the Revolutionary War and who are not part of the loyal Polish community that has recognized him...

They turned out along Eastern Avenue yesterday to see a parade. It didn't much matter who the parade was commemorating. Few of the onlookers in Highlandtown had any idea who Casimir Pulaski was, even though Baltimore city's fathers named a street and a highway after him."I didn't know him," came a matter-of-fact response from Margaret J. Leon, sweeping up debris from the gutter in front of her house in the 2300 block of Eastern Avenue after the parade had passed."Only Pulaski I know is . . . a big lawyer downtown," said Bill Reel, 62, a retired house painter from Fells Point who watched the procession from a set of shaded steps leading to Patterson Park.

A well-groomed police officer commands respect for himself, his position and the city he serves ( "Baltimore police to bring back inspections unit," Feb. 16). And, how can he enforce the law when he does not obey it by neglecting to wear seat belts? Welcome back Maj. Marty Davenport. Margaret Pagan, Baltimore