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Joan, <br>
<br>
I'm more pleased that you party affiliation is "largely vestigial"
(something like how the English view their teeth) than I can possibly
describe. There's hope for you yet. This is, however, in the context
of my underlying belief that the two party system manifestly
marginalizes the rational evolution of law and produces an inefficient
outcome which tends to satisfice, rather than optimize, due to its
partisan oligarchic power struggle. Well leave it at that for now. So
as is germane to topical relevance, we'll tackle our inconsistencies
and leaps of faith taken on little evidence. The pleasure will surely
be mine.<br>
<br>
Now for the yiddish. Both you and Melynda Husky came damn close. <br>
<br>
"Bubby kvetched that the moyle was shikker while the mishpucha noodged
to get at the nosheri" (as corrected by Melynda).<br>
<br>
Melynda said:<br>
<br>
"Grandma complained that the religious practitioner who performs
circumcisions was slow while the assembled folks waited impatiently
(with some murmuring and nagging) to get at the snacks."<br>
<br>
Joan said:<br>
<br>
"Grandma bitched that the man who performs the circumcisions was drunk
while the folks jostled one another to get at the buffet."<br>
<br>
So here's the literal translation:<br>
<br>
"Grandma incessantly complained that the rabbi performing the
circumcision was drunk while the entire extended family repeatedly and
annoyingly asked when they could get at the table of snacks."<br>
<br>
I've been to scores of brises... this generally sums-up a typical one.<br>
<br>
Bubby = Grandmother <br>
kvetch = continuous or incessant complaining<br>
moyle = rabbi who's job it is to specifically perform circumcisions (at
a bris)<br>
shikker = drunk<br>
noodged = verb form of noodge; one who is always asking for things in
an annoying way<br>
meshpucha or meshpuchah = the extended family or sometimes used for a
very dear group of friends.<br>
<blockquote>(the "ch" sound is an uvular fricative - the sound made
while clearing last night's raucous tequila drinking binge out of the
back of your throat or when yelling "Allah A<b>ch</b>bar" to a group of
crazed fanatics all strapped with a couple of pounds of C4)<br>
</blockquote>
nosheri = a table of snacks - a nosh is larger than a schnitzel (a
"little bit") and smaller than a meal<br>
<br>
Some of my other favorites:<br>
<br>
puetz = foreskin (worthless) - "Im such a puetz" <br>
schmuck = male organ - so don't take this lightly if it's used against
you personally. <br>
schmeckle = a little schmuck - a particularly derogatory remark to
those insecure in their manhood.<br>
gonnif = a crook<br>
nebbish = a nothing (ala "he's such a nebbish")<br>
meshuggi = a crazy act<br>
meshugginah = a crazy person<br>
shickzah = a non-Jewish female<br>
goy = a non-jew<br>
goyum = many non-jews<br>
verclempt = flustered, upset, choaked-up<br>
drek = crap "it was a pile of dreck."<br>
schmattah = a rag as in "that dress is a schmattah."<br>
schmutz = grime or dirt as in "wash that schmutz off of you face."<br>
yidkopf = a good head, a smart person<br>
<br>
There we have it (well, some of it.) So now when your fixated on old
Jackie Mason reruns you'll understand what the hell he's sayng.
Welcome to the meshpuchah! Mazzletov! What a glorius mitzvah!<br>
<br>
Dave "Puetz" Budge - (That's Mr. Puetz to you)<br>
<br>
ps. BTW, I'm not jewish, but after 15 years in Chicago's financial
district some friends made me an honorable member of the tribe - "MOT"
as they would say.<br>
<br>
<br>
Joan Opyr wrote:<br>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="midBAY10-DAV156F774B694BA465660966C5680@phx.gbl">
<div>Dave asks, quite rightly, why (oh why) am I a Democrat? It's
certainly not because I love the current incarnation of my party, AKA
Republican Lite. (No taste; unfulfilling.) In short, my party
affiliation is like my appendix -- largely vestigial. Still, I remain
a Democrat, for the time being, because . . . </div>
<div> </div>
<div>1. I believe in organized labor. And, yes, I am well aware of
how corrupt the Teamsters have been/are; so, too, the AFL-CIO, the UAW,
the Garment Workers Union, and so on, and so on, and so on.
Nevertheless, I have lived in union states and I have lived in
so-called right-to-work states, and I know that there is power in a
union. There is no power in a state employees' association.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>2. I believe in the ongoing need for affirmative action. I
laugh in people's faces when they speculate that Colin Powell could win
the GOP Presidential nomination in the South. As a native Southerner,
I know what people tell pollsters, and I know what they say when
they're with an all-white crowd; never the twain shall meet. Not long
ago, a small delegation of white women in my mother's office (a state
office) took it upon themselves to call a meeting with her
supervisor regarding an upcoming job opening. "Let's hire someone
white this time," they said. "We've already got enough of them." As
much as I wish there were such a thing as color-blind hiring, or
gender-blind hiring, there isn't. A quick flick through the Fortune
500 CEOs tells me all I need to know on that score.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>3. I believe in a basic, fundamental, social safety net. I
believe in universal access to healthcare, and that that access is a
right and not a privilege. I do support means-testing for Social
Security; the program was created to provide a basic standard of living
for those who had spent their lives working like Georgia mules; it
was not to supplement the retirement incomes of (sorry) stockbrokers.
I do not support raising the retirement age or cutting basic benefits.
Why? Because, once again, minority workers lose out. Black and Latino
people in this country have an average life expectancy nearly a decade
lower than their white counterparts; they also experience higher infant
mortality rates.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>4. I'm a New Deal, Great Society, social, racial, and economic
justice and broad support for public education type. The Democratic
Party of my long ago youth used to support these things without
apology. Education used to be more important than educational
testing. We didn't succeed in eradicating poverty, but once upon a
time we proclaimed that as one of our fundamental goals.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>I am, by and large, a Howard Dean Democrat. I'm a social
liberal and a fiscal conservative. I identify with the term
"progressive" though I recognize that I don't fit the classic
definition of that word. That, in short, is my answer. But let me
just throw out a few other positions I hold: I don't think the
Pentagon needs a 4.8% increase this year, independent of the costs of
the Iraq War (which Mr. Bush has conveniently segregated into a
separate spending bill). I don't tend to support unfunded federal
mandates, which Republicans and Democrats alike have sadly embraced. I
think that unchecked, enormous inherited wealth is a danger to a
healthy democracy; it creates a defacto ruling class, an American
aristocracy, as worthless and self-absorbed as the European
aristocracies our political ancestors abandoned and rejected I like
target shooting and deer and elk hunting, but I don't like the NRA.
I'm a fan of wild wolves but I'm friends with many ranchers. I don't
support large farm subsidies, but I like small farmers.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>I freely admit to many logical inconsistencies in my thinking,
to taking large leaps of faith on very little evidence, and to
preferring to select my friends from the variety mix. Gay, straight,
Republican, Democrat, Jewish, Christian, Evangelical, Hindu, Jain,
Muslim, atheist, agnostic . . . and stockbroker. I enjoy nothing more
than a good, well-reasoned argument, clever wordplay, and a fair fight.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Now, about your Yiddish -- I'm Jewish by choice and by
patriarchal descent. My father's family is Ukrainian/Jewish; my
mother is a lapsed Southern Baptist WASP. So, I shall give this
translation my best shot -- sticking with your cruel anti-Googling
rules -- and we shall see what we shall see. </div>
<div><br>
"Bubby kvetched that the moyle was shikker while the mishpucha noodged
to get at the nasherie." </div>
<div> </div>
<div>Grandma bitched that the man who performs the circumcisions was
drunk while the folks jostled one another to get at the buffet.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>How's that? Perhaps I should confess that I have a Jewish
literary agent. Who lives in New York. In Lower Manhattan.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Oy,</div>
<div>Joan Opyr/Auntie Establishment</div>
<br clear="all">
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