Which group - aside from those with which you have a strong ethnic, racial, religious affiliation - exerts a significant impact on everyday expressions likely to pop out of your mouth?
Oy vey, is this easy for me. Had I gone to school among only Baptists or been raised in rural North Dakota, what would I have grown up calling the schmucks, klutzes, and schlemiels I encountered? How about later in life when I had to schlep stuff around or wanted to kibitz with others? For me, the word shtick has always nailed it better than that oh-so-English expression "bit" and also sounds less hoity-toity than "trope". When trying not to be crude, doesn't substituting chutzpah for cojones - or its English equivalent that rhymes with halls - work really well? There is no better word for torturous lounge music than schmaltz. Kissing ass = bad visual; schmoozing = harmless. Doing a good deed sounds nice but not as lofty doing a mitzvah, don't you agree?
Continue my kvetching? Only a nebbish (aka schnook) would risk his readers - especially the goyim among them - doing so. I'd prefer to sign off and remain your bell curve mensch. Shalom.
About Me
- Pat Barton
- My most recent single release - "My True North" - is now available on Bandcamp. Open my profile and click on "audio clip".
Mazel tov! You had me from Shalom!
ReplyDeleteThis blog was priceless!!! Awesome job, honorary Yid.
Love it! Yiddish is such a colorful and robust language. You are, indeed, an honorary Yid. Here are some more for your next edition: nosh, va klempt (overcome with emotion), tsurris (worry, anguish as in “Our child is causing us so much tsurris” or I have so much tsurris.), kvell (bubbling over with joy as in “I am just kvelling…our son just got into Harvard.”), nachis (pride derived from your child’s accomplishments as in, “May your baby give you much nachis.”)
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