MAY 18, 2016
If That’s His Real Name
In the May 12 Reader there is a letter titled “Patron Saint of the Republican Party,” by someone who signs himself Daniel Smiechowski. It’s a crazy letter. In it, he compares Trump to Hitler and says we Trump voters are haters and we’re going to bring down ashes of annihilation on the country, and a bunch of other nutty stuff.
When I saw the name Smiechowski — there should be an acute accent mark on the initial S, by the way — it brought back memories of my youth, which was spent for several years in a Pollack neighborhood in East St. Louis, Illinois.
That name looked familiar. The root of it is śmiech. The word in Polish, it’s a noun that means laughter, or laugh. And śmiechoff means laughable. In other words, Mr. Smiechowski is some sort of clown or comedian or baffoon. That’s what his name means. So, if that’s his real name, maybe he comes by his craziness naturally. Maybe it’s hereditary. But that’s what śmiech means.
Anyway, Smiechowski, when Trump gets voted into office, I don’t know what you’ll do.
- Name withheld