“_Just Say Nu_”:http://www.amazon.com/Just-Say-Nu-Yiddish-Occasion/dp/0312364628/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-0292499-2226507?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192671694&sr=1-1 (St. Martin’s), the follow-up to Michael Wex’s cultural history of Yiddish “_Born to Kvetch_”:http://www.amazon.com/Born-Kvetch-Yiddish-Language-Culture/dp/0061132179/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-0292499-2226507?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192671542&sr=8-1 (Harper Perennial), lands in bookstores this week. Despite being praised by “_The Times_”:http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/17/books/17grimes.html?_r=1&oref=slogin for its “verve,” “elan” and “chutzpah,” the Yiddish for dummies manual pales in comparison to Jackie Mason’s “_How to Talk Jewish_”:http://www.amazon.com/How-Talk-Jewish-Jackie-Mason/dp/0312072368/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-0292499-2226507?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192671910&sr=1-1, which the comedian co-authored with Ira Berkow in 1991, years before the former “all but ceased to tell actual jokes”:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joQ0SHEXbzk. _How to Talk Jewish_, however, is Jackie Mason at his best. For instance, here’s what he says about the Yiddish word _feh_:
“It’s late and you drop by a girl’s apartment for a visit. As things heat up a little you tell her, ‘I can’t get over you. You’re the most magnificent thing that ever happened.’ In your own mind, you’re saying, ‘Better than nothing. This is the best I could get. It’s 4:00 in the morning. What do you expect?’ But by 4:15, when you take a look at the girl, and your honest opinion becomes clear, it is summed up in one word that your’re thinking. That word is “_Feh_.” _Feh_ goes together with, How can I get a cab as fast as possible?”
And on _bashert_:
“It’s _bashert_ when a guy crosses the street without looking both ways and gets hit by a truck. He can’t admit it’s his fault when he has an accident. So he always says ‘It was from heaven.’ It was always God who did it to him. God had nothing to do with it because if you were looking, this accident never would have happened. But he says, God wants it and you can’t fight God. God is supposed to watch the traffic for you. But what right did you have to give God the assignment of watching out for the next car? So it’s _bashert_ because it was God’s business but he wasn’t paying attention.”
Trust me, instead of shelling out $23.95 at B&N for _Just Say Nu_, find an old copy of _How to Talk Jewish_.
Or else, you’ll learn the meaning of another Yiddish word: _schlock_.
What a cheap shtick! “How to talk Jewish” may probably be a fun book (I don’t know it) but from the examples presented in this review it has nothing to do with “Just Say Nu” by Michael Wex. More, the reviewer seems to have missed the point of Wex’s book c
yidvicious, thank you for a review which offered real perspective.
I shall look for the older ( Mason ) book
and I shall pass on the nu one……
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