From: ted@dgbt.doc.ca (Ted Grusec)
Subject: Re: Polack joke
Organization: The Communications Research Centre
Date: Fri, 21 Aug 92 15:31:34 GMT

In article <1992Aug21.044540.2056@r-node.gts.org> wizard@r-node.gts.org (Miroslaw Kuc) writes:
>In article <1992Aug19.210307.10418@smartstar.com> syspb@smartstar.com (Paul) writes:
>>I know some Engineers that use HP calculators.  They way you enter the
>>numbers is different than most other calculators.  They call it
>>RPN for Reversed Polish Notation.
>>
>This is an actual mathematical term.  It has to do with the way you enter your
>numbers.  As opposed to saying 1+1 your do +1 1 or was it 1 1 + . I cannot
>remember.  It has nothing to do with ethnic (polish in this case) jokes.
>I'm not sure but it has to do with improved efficiency of operation or ease 
>of specifying order of operations (you don't need brackets, I think). 

That's correct, you don't need brackets because specifying the
operator before, or after, the variables, obviates ambiguity. Brackets
are needed only for disambiguation in the older notation.  The Polish
mathematician/logician Lukasiewicz proposed and proved the system. In
the HP calculators, the operator is specified after, rather than
before the variables, and hence is known as REVERSE Polish notation
(RPN) where Lukasiewicz proposed "before". The advantage of
specifying the operator "after" is that it you don't commit yourself
to what the operator will be until you have the variables (numbers)
since, in a complex series of calculations, you may not know what
operation you want to perform until you know the magnitude of the
variables.  This is not a Polish joke.

But speaking of ethnic jokes, let us consider their historical
origins.  The fact is that the early Polish immigrants to America
performed very hard, menial labor in various contexts, as do most
early migrants.  They left Poland because they were severely
disadvantaged there.  They worked extremely hard in America, beyond
what well-settled Americans were willing to do, hence were often
considered "stupid" for so doing.  A true "Polish" joke refers to some
of the behaviors which "older" Americans would not persist in as
tenaciously as did the Poles.  Most "current" so-called Polish jokes
are really generic ethnic jokes which do not refer to anything
particularly "Polish", so any ethnic term could be substituted. In
Canada, there is a tradition of "newfie" jokes, referring to people
from Newfoundland and originating from the observed behaviors of
Newfoundlanders when the migrated to other parts of Canada.  You could
substitute "newfie" for "pole" in these jokes (or any other group) and
it wouldn't matter to the "humour".  Whether anyone likes it or not,
this kind of joke-making appears to be a universal human trait and
the only rational response from anyone who finds it offensive is to
IGNORE IT, and I'm referring specifically to posts to this group.
Ignore it here and it will go away.  People don't persist in telling
such jokes unless they  provoke a reaction of one kind or another,
including annoyance as well as laughter.  Let's see how fast this
thread dies if everyone ignores it.i
-- 
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Ted Grusec    Communications Research Centre    (Govt. of Canada, DOC)
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