Good morning and welcome to Summit Up, the world's only daily column that's getting fired up for April 28th, when we hope to travel to New York City's famed Waldorf Astoria for the Kosciuszko Foundation 77th Annual Ball.

Well, not really, but we are intrigued while never ceasing to be amazed by the panoply of random stuff that crosses our email daily. We're sure you have questions, such as what's the Kosciuszko Foundation all about? As most of you no doubt know, Thaddeus Kosciuszko (or, in Polish, Tadeusz) was a Pole who fought in the American Revolution and later in the Polish-Russian War in 1792. In 1794, he led the Kosciuszko Uprising against Imperial Russia and the Kingdom of Prussia as Supreme Commander of the Polish National Armed Force.

He was, in short, a bad-ass who, as most New Yorkers know, later had a bridge named after him. (It's on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, and in researching that, we also discovered there's a Kosciuszko Bridge near Albany, N.Y. and yet another in Connecticut.)

Also, both Kosciusko, Mississippi and Kosciusko, Texas are named in his honor, plus a whole bunch of other stuff in Poland and France and Switzerland. As for the Foundation, here's the skinny:

“Founded in 1925, the Kosciuszko Foundation promotes closer ties between Poland and the United States through educational, scientific and cultural exchanges. It awards up to $1 million annually in fellowships and grants to graduate students, scholars, scientists, professionals, and artists, and promotes Polish culture in America. The Foundation has awarded scholarships and provided a forum to Poles who have changed history.”

So, in short, if your Polish, this is the foundation for you! This year's ball, BTW, will be dedicated to “Polish Contributions to Science,” and the honoree will be Nobel Prize-winning physicist, MIT professor Frank Wilczek.

MILLIONS OF SUMMIT UP READERS: You're killing us! New topic!

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OK, OK: As promised, we have the second in a series of haiku about weird animals from local eighth grader Heather Johnston. Today's topic is the pygmy marmoset, so here goes:

Pygmy Marmosets

Pygmy's just a Words-With-Friends

Move with no vowels

(Sound of slow exhalation of breath)

Whoa! We're not sure what that means, exactly, but it's like a Zen koan or something — pretty deep, we think, and freighted with transcendental meaning we can only begin to fathom or explain.

Tune in tomorrow when Heather takes on the bizarre and wondrous tapir — a pig-like critter with truly unusual black & white coloring.

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Meanwhile back to the Kosciuszko Foundation ...

MILLIONS OF SUMMIT UP READERS: Groan!

SU: We just wanted to note that we spelled Kosciuszko properly in each instance, which is no mean task given that it's the kind of name that seems designed to be misspelled. (Note, too, that the folks in Texas and Mississippi simplified it a bit by dropping the “z.”)

That's a shout-out to the lady who sent us a letter the other day wondering if we even had a proofreader since she found a typo in the paper in an AP story. Hey lady, you try putting out a paper every day of the yaer with only nein people and nevr haveing a tpyo! Sheesh.

And BTW, if you need to know more about the Kosciuszko Foundation, you can find out a ton at www.thekf.org. He was a fascinating guy, really!

We out. Go ski!