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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Landers Apologizes To Poles

Associated Press

It’s 40 lashes with a wet noodle for Ann Landers for referring to the pope as a “Polack.”

“I should not have used a slang term for Polish,” the advice columnist said in a statement Thursday. “It was poor judgment, and I apologize.”

Landers drew howls of protest from Polish-Americans after The New Yorker this week published a profile of her in which she was asked for her impressions of Pope John Paul II, whom she has met.

“Looks like an angel. He has the face of an angel,” she said.

“His eyes are sky blue, and his cheeks are pink and adorable-looking, and he has a sweet sense of humor. Of course, he’s a Polack,” she laughingly told the interviewer. “They’re very anti-woman.”

Edward G. Dykla, president of the Polish Roman Catholic Union of America, a fraternal organization of about 100,000 members, said he was stunned.

“Ethnic groups throughout this country have fought to get rid of these slurs against all of us, and then Ann Landers throws one out,” he said. “I think people will take this as an insult, as they have, and stop reading her.”

Edward Moskal, president of the Polish American Congress, which represents about 1 million people, had his own advice for Landers: “She should have shut up after she made the nice remark about the pope.”

In apologizing, she used one of her trademark phrases: “It’s time to get out the wet noodle and give myself 40 lashes.”