This article, based on the talk given by one of the authors at the Pierrettefest in Castro Urdiales in June 2008, is an overview of a number of recent results on the polar invariants of plane curve singularities.2000 Mathematics Subject Classification: Primary 32S55; Secondary 14H20. Key words and phrases: plane curve singularity, polar invariant, jacobian Newton polygon, equisingularity, pencil of plane curve singularities.