Dog Meat—Notes from Poland

Last year, in May, I had occasion to revisit Warsaw, where I had stopped in 1974 on my way back from the Soviet Union. Detente, in 1974, was at its height, yet, when I reached Warsaw after a month in Russia, I felt as though I had crossed a time zone. The air was palpably free.

I embarked upon my return visit with a good deal of apprehension, thinking that the Warsaw I remembered would not be the one of today. This proved to be not entirely correct.

I had arranged, through Polis...