______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 3.285 March 14, 1994 1) Plays on words (Yosel Berman) 2) Erotica, etc. (Leonard Prager) 3) Introduction (Anno Siegel) 4) A Frage fun Kashes (Andrew Cassel) 5) Schoolyard Yiddishisms (Andrew Cassel) 6) Rosenfield's Eliot parodies (Neakh Zide) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon Mar 14 02:02:40 1994 From: Subject: Plays on words I am a great fan of the David Letterman show and was, especially during my University days, an avid watcher. At the beginning of each show, Dave engages in some semi-humourous, semi spontaneous, reparte with his co-host Paul Schaffer (who happens to be a Jew from Thunder Bay Ontario). During one particular show, Dave was bemoaning the difficulty he had in obtaining some product (I don't recall what) from his local convenience store. He told Paul how he had sent one of his staff to try to obtain this item without success. The conversation went something like this: Dave: So Paul, I needed some (whatever) and there was none in the office so I sent a minion to the seven eleven to get me some. Paul: Dave, you sent ten men to the seven eleven just to get some (whatever)? Dave: What are you talking about Paul? I said I sent a minion to the seven eleven.... and Dave proceeded to tell some convenience store related joke. There was no further mention of the word minion and I sometimes wonder if I was the only viewer who realised that a cross-linguistic joke had been made. Yosel Berman. 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon Mar 14 03:02:12 1994 From: Subject: Erotica, etc. In reply to A. Beck's query, there is a lot of material in -Yudishe shprikhverter un redensarten- (=Yidishe ... rednsartn) "gezamelt un derklert" fun Ignats Bernshteyn(oysgelasene un grobe shprikhverter), 1908. The German title page reads -Juedische Sprichwoerter und Redensarten gesammelt und derklert von Ignaz Bernstein (Erotica un Rustica) (Als Manuscript Gedruckt), 1908. This was issued separately from his larger opus. It is included in the ALthaus reprint of a number of yearsago to the best of my memory. There is enough material in these 227 expressions to keep -Mendele- buzzing for months. There is a lot of verbal humor here, playing on Hebrew and Polish words, much that is gross too. Re recent discussion of homosexuality in Yiddish, note proverb no. 1: "A bokher mit a zokher shayt zikh," where the author's gloss begins "Men meynt di tayve fun mishkev-zokher." Is it true that most sexual terms in Yiddish derive from the H-A component, esp. the sexual euphemisms? But were these H-A. terms not too learned for many? Leonard Prager 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon Mar 14 04:27:07 1994 From: Subject: Introduction Dear Mendelniks, after more than two months of reading Mendele, I think I owe you an introduction, just to say "Ahem, I'm with you". I am a fifty year old mathematician, currently (and probably for good) working as a sysadmin for the computing center of TU (Technical University) Berlin. In spite of my last name I'm as gentile as they come. My connection with Yiddish... Well, it's rather superficial, at least by Mendele standards. When I try to remember, I think I became aware of the existence of Yiddish when I was about fifteen years old when I read a German dime novel which had a Jewish background. To add some color, the author had thrown in -- well, not Yiddish phrases, but some double negatives and some characteristic inversions, and for some reason I was charmed. My interest was revived some ten years later when I heard my first Yiddish song. It was "Yokh, mayn libe tokhter" by the Barry Sisters, of all things. I was a part-time amateur folk singer then and soon made this, and some more Yiddish music part of my repertory. Soon I became aware that, in order to know what I was doing, I had to learn more about the language. So I got myself some books, most notably Birnbaum's _Grammatik der Jiddischen Sprache_, and tried to learn what I needed for the purpose. I have given up folk singing since then (it was never much to write home about), but my interest for Yiddish has remained. So I was delighted to learn about the existence of Mendele in the beginning of 1994 and subscribed immediately. I have been lurking ever since, only occasionally replying by direct email to a question when I thought that my knowledge of modern German might be useful. Anno Siegel 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon Mar 14 06:53:26 1994 From: acassel@philly.cerf.fred.org Subject: A Frage fun Kashes Sometime between now and Pesakh, could somebody zayt azoy gut as to post the correct Yiddishe Fier Kashes? I'd like to introduce it at our seder this year. A dank. Andrew Cassel 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon Mar 14 06:53:32 1994 From: acassel@philly.cerf.fred.org Subject: schoolyard Yiddishisms Re the recent discussion of simolians and the like: Did Americans begin saying "hotsy totsy" as a corruption of "hot zi tzatzkes?" Did we call those obnoxious beatings on the head or shoulders of our buddies "nugies" because they were supposed to make you say "genug!"? Andrew Cassel 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon Mar 14 10:34:42 1994 Sender: grgg@midway.uchicago.edu Subject: Rosenfield's Eliot parodies Could anyone provide me with Isaac Rosenfeld's Yiddish parody of Eliot's Prufrock , -and any others of Rosenfeld's ? Various memoirs (Howe, Bellow, Kazin, Solotaroff ??) talk about them. I see (in Shechner's After the Revolution) a reference to his (Rosenfeld's) Yiddish Fables (translations ? the original ? both ?) in Prooftexts (May l982). I don't think - I don't know - that the parodies are included. Neakh/ Norman Zide ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 3.285 To subscribe, send SUB MENDELE FIRSTNAME LASTNAME to: LISTSERV@YALEVM.YCC.YALE.EDU Mendele has 2 rules: 1. Provide a Subject: line. 2. Sign your article. 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