Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 2 no. 202 May 13, 1993 1) Coffee Talk (Gerald M. Phillips) 2) Saturday Night Live (Moshe Waldoks) 3) Sveder (Noyekh Miller) 4) Pantoufles (Jascha Kessler) 5) For Mendele's birthday (Jascha Kessler) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu May 13 10:42:28 1993 From: Subject: Coffee Talk and Cultural Yiddish I fear I will never recover the Yiddish of Fanny and Zygmunt, but the cultural mileu remains and important memory. That is the reason I brought up Coffee Talk. I might now mention Brooklyn Bridge and Seinfeld. It appears that there is a trend in the media toward unapologetic ethnicity. It started with the political pressure that produced the Cosby Show. Thus, we get the ultimate American family, only they are black. It is followed by the clearly Protestant Wonder Years. In Brooklyn Bridge we had Jewish Huxtables. I am interested in this trend. As an unapologetic watcher of schlock TV, and especially the comedy clubs, reaction to people like Dennis Wolfberg would be appreciated. How does Jackie Mason play in New York? I realize I am not talking about the Yiddish language now, but call it "sociolinguistics" if you will. Gerald M. Phillips 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu May 13 10:44:36 1993 From: WALDOKS@BINAH.CC.BRANDEIS.EDU Subject: Saturday Night Live Lionda Richman (notice the name) could have slid into an antisemitic stereotype. It is saved from it by Mike Meyers' obvious affectionfor his creation, no doubt fashioned after many of his mother's cohort. It's no more antisemitic than Jerry Seinfeld's "accurate" depictions of the "kleyn- menschlich narishkeyt" he encounters visiting his condo-dwelling parents in South Florida. Sometimes we are, indeed, as "narish" as we appear to be. Moshe Waldoks 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu May 13 11:44:28 1993 From: norman miller Subject: Sveder Zev Kesselman writes: Similarly, the Hebrew sweater "sveder" HAS to be Yiddish related, with all due respects to the talmudic "sudar". Yiddish may have gotten it from English, but even my Polish acquaintances use this word. Not only Poles, as witness this bit of French Yiddish (1945): "Far der milkhome hob ikh gehot a fabrik fun sveders, yetst arbet ikh farn gouvernement". Noyekh 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu May 13 16:59:25 1993 From: KESSLER Subject: Pantoufles I was glad to be reminded of SHTEKSHIKH. In our family, those were slippers. But I had agreed that we used PUDESHVES, too. usally the heelless slipper/slopper rundowns of the shleppers in our family, who went around with terrible bunions (my aunt Fanny), with the krimme punim, and the perpetual curse on her lips. Jascha Kessler 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu May 13 17:00:21 1993 From: KESSLER Subject: For Mendele's birthday Dear Shames: Okay, here is a terrible joke I heard recently, to inaugurate your happy third year. A man is closing the bar in New York City one night. He orders a double whiskey. Notices way down at the other end a figure seated in the shadow, also finishing. He asks bartender who it is. A regular, is the reply. Closes the place. -What's he drinking? Oh, schnapps on ice. --Send him a double. Bartender slides a double down the bar. Acknowledgement with a wave of the hand. Man takes it as hint for conversation. Sidles down, and suggests he will finish in company, if the guy doesnt mind. Head nods okay. He looks sidelong at him. Takes a deep breath, --Say, hope you wont mind if I say something? Go ahead,is the nodded response. --Well, pardon me...but...you know? if Hitler was alive, he might look something like you, if you dont mind. Vy not? is growled back. I A M Ahdulf Heetler. Zey zink I was dead in ze Boonker. Nein. I got out, with my closest aide. Vee haf been in Argentina for 40 years. Mit plans. Ve are ready now. We vill soon begin. --What? Ve start our last struggle! Zis time, ve vill exterminate all tzvel millions Judim, und 4 acrobats! --Why 4 acrobats? And the reply comes, You see? Nobody cares about ze Judim! Over to you. Jascha ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol 2.202