Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 6.028 July 4, 1996 1) Dan Leeson (Garry Margolis) 2) Shyster (Geralyn Flood) 3) Al tiro avdi Yaakov (Bernard S. Greenberg) 4) Yiddish humorists (Morrie Feller) 5) A moyd mit an oyringl (Mendy Fliegler) 6) Konin (Marjorie Schonhaut Hirshan) 7) _Tam-Tam_ (Andrew Cassel) 8) _Tam-Tam_ (Meinhard E. Mayer) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 3 Jul 1996 11:30:12 -0700 From: garrym@netcom.com Subject: Dan Leeson Dan Leeson had a "moderate" heart attack last Friday night. According to his wife, Rosanne, he is now doing very well and will be home from the hospital in a week to ten days. She is printing-out peoples' email messages to him and bringing them to the hospital. So, if any of you would like to send him a message, be assured that he will read it. The address is: leeson@admin.fhda.edu Garry Margolis 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 2 Jul 1996 15:40:43 -0400 From: gflood@stern.nyu.edu Subject: Shyster Judith Klavans at Columbia recommended I contact you in regards to my search on the derivation of the word "shyster". I have heard that it is yiddish in origin, while others have said it is german. I was wondering if you could shed any light on this. Your help and advise would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks, Geralyn Flood 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 2 Jul 1996 15:42:33 -0400 From: bsg@basistech.com Subject: Al tiro avdi Yaakov With the help of a couple of young expatriate Russian friends of mine, I have made substantial headway in decoding this brief Hebrew-Yiddish-Russian-Ukranian macaronic folk song. One phrase is still a complete mystery. If anyone recognizes the sounds of these few words, in context, I'd love to hear. Here is the context: Omar adoynoy l'Yaakov God said to Jacob (Hebrew), Ya, tatye, Ya "My little-father" (Ukranian) Otsokh niere tsugi zogt .... .... .... said, (Yiddish?) "Al tiro avdi Yaakov" "Fear not, my servant, Jacob" (Hebrew) ne boyus', ne "I fear not, I fear no one kogo ne veryu ne komy I believe in tol'ko bogy odnomy no one but in God alone." (Russian) The phrase "otsokh niere tsugi" is a complete mystery: My guess is that it is Yiddish of some form, but (but for one) I neither recognize the words nor can find anything like them in Weinreich or Harkavy. The stresses are on OTsokh NYEre tsuGI (so it's not 'tsugezogt'), nye is the sound of "nyet", which is distinctively Slavic non-Yiddish, but my Ukranian/Russian speakers can make no sense of it. Can anybody help? Thanks Bernard S. Greenberg 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 3 Jul 1996 04:53:40 -1000 From: feller@mail.indirect.com Subject: Yiddish humorists I don't recall seeing the following book mentioned in the lists of humor books which have appeared thus far on Mendele: "Lomir Lachen..." (I. Opatowski) (Israel,1989) Morrie Feller Phoenix 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 3 Jul 1996 20:06:33 -0400 (EDT) From: efliegle@CapAccess.org Subject: A moyd mit an oyringl Oyf a Montig, dem draytn Yuni, hot Khaver Kijak fun Argentine geshribn vegn a moyd mit an oyringl, dus vus Khaverte Marjorie hot dermont..... Ikh gedenk als kind ven mir hobn gekrign naye shkhenim un mayn mame hot ungehoybn rifn di froy dortn "a yidene mit an oyringl" ven zi flegt shrayen in gas oyf ir man.... Nu? Mendy Fliegler 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 4 Jul 1996 10:05:30 -0400 From: shirshan@aol.com Subject: _Konin: A Quest_ A dank Dovid Herskovic for his masterful review and recommendation. Mendele may have discovered the Edmund Wilson of the new generation. Dovid's intensity and talent with words made his interest contagious, and I sped to the library for the book. Here, in goles, the closest thing to Konin in the computer listing is Kon-tiki. I would appreciate the name, rank, and serial number of the publisher. A dank faroys. Mendele seems a wonderful avenue for book reviews of this type of material which touch at the heart of Yiddishkeit, albeit they are in English. Happy Independence Day, Marjorie Schonhaut Hirshan North Conway, New Hampshire 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 2 Jul 1996 15:22:36 -0400 (EDT) From: andrew.cassel@phillynews.com Subject: _Tam-Tam_ A hearty second to Khayem Bochner's comments re: _Tam Tam_. As a Yiddish "onheyber," I found the articles just about right for my skills -- readable with about 6 "Weinreichs" (trips to the verterbukh) per paragraph. As for PDF, it's agonizingly slow but, I have to say, worth the wait. Only the first issue didn't load properly (perhaps they'll repost it). I did find, after printing issue 5 out on 8 x 11 paper, that it was much more legible after I'd enlarged it to a legal-sized (8 x 14) sheet on a xerox. The question is, will the publishers continue to distribute future issues freely this way? Or was this just a teaser offer, with subscriptions required in future? I found nothing on the "Gefi'l" website to answer this question. Finally, has anyone considered a joint venture between Mendele and this organization, aimed at creating or distributing timely, lively Yiddish literary and educational material over the Web? Sounds like an opportunity for someone ... Andrew Cassel 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 02 Jul 1996 22:25:22 PDT From: hardy@lynx.ps.uci.edu Subject: _Tam-Tam_ I am one of the main complainers about pdf. It turns out that the three psf-files on _Tam-Tam_ are not standard pdf. I downloaded them and tried to display them with ghostscript, which supposedly reads pdf, but I just get a list of errors. My Unix (Linux -- a free and widespread paltform) is not supported, neither is HP-UX on MC68040 machines nor NeXTStep on NeXT machines. The alternative would be to reboot my ThinkPad in DOS, start up Windows, use Lotus's Acroread, and discover perhaps that the files are unreadable. I had some correspondence about this with the person in France responsible. A shod az men ken es nit leyenen! A gris far ale mendelyaner, Meinhard E. Mayer [Technical discussions are important but perhaps they belong in a separate mailing. Unless there are strenuous objections from Mendelistn such posts will in future be bundled separately. nm] ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 6.028