schnook, schnorrer, megillah, meshuga, schlump…

Who can resist such words? I plan on working at least one of these into my conversation today.

I’ve copied from last week’s Wordsmith.org emails.

A language is the soul of its people. This is nowhere illustrated more profoundly than in the Yiddish language, the language of Jews of eastern and central Europe and their descendants. A tongue full of wit and charm, Yiddish embodies deep appreciation of human behavior in all its colorful manifestations. The word Yiddish comes from German Judisch meaning Jewish. But it is not the same as Hebrew, even though it is written in Hebrew script…

…Many of the everyday English language words such as bagel, klutz, and kibitz are terms from Yiddish. This week we’ll look at a few other Yiddishisms that have enriched the English language.

schnook (shnook) noun

A stupid, easily deceived person.

[From Yiddish shnuk (snout) or from German schnucke (a small sheep).]

-Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org)

“A gun-toting schnook became an embarrassing crook when he robbed
  a Spokane dollar store Sunday. Seriously, if you’re going to commit
  a Class A felony, you might as well rob a Class A joint.”
  Frank Sennett; Dollar-Store Thief Bucks Common Sense; Spokesman Review
  (Washington); Mar 9, 2007.

schnorrer (SHNOR-uhr) noun

One who habitually takes advantage of others’ generosity,
  often through an air of entitlement.

[From Yiddish, from German schnurren (to purr, hum, or whir), from the sound of a beggar's musical instrument.]

megillah (meh-GIL-uh) noun

A long, tedious account.

[From Yiddish megile (scroll), from Hebrew megillah, from galal (to roll).
The term alludes to the length of the text in the Book of Esther which is read in its entirety, twice, during Purim, a Jewish festival.]

-Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org)

“But the obvious challenge was to go through the whole megillah — to
  begin with the Andante in C Major, which Mozart wrote when he was five,
  and proceed to the bitter end, the Requiem.”
  Alex Ross; The Storm of Style; The New Yorker; Jul 24, 2006

meshuga or meshugga (muh-SHOOG-uh) adjective

Crazy; stupid.

[From Yiddish meshuge, from Hebrew meshugga.]

Today’s word in Visual Thesaurus: http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=meshuga

-Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org)

“Plenty of hip-hoppers want to be considered insane, but only Paul Barman
  wants to be known as meshuga.”
  David Segal; The Weirder, the Better; The Washington Post; Jun 25, 2000.

schlump (shlump) noun

A dull or slovenly person.

[From Yiddish shlumperdik (unkempt, sloppy).]

-Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org)

“‘You don’t want to dress up too much, but you don’t want to be
  a schlump,’ says Michael Kors.”
  Hal Rubenstein; Terrific Style by Age, by Size, by Shape, by Color;
  In Style (New York); Aug 2006.

Or so it seems…

Even for as little as $5 per day.

Such is the fabulous headline for the following news report.

That’s when the man raised a five pound log of frozen prosciutto over his head, presumably to whack Scola.

Luckily, Scola had his own frozen pig product on hand…

Read more here.

Life is beautiful.

Zing, baby!

These shorts are hilarious.

How Superman Should have Ended

Hitler

I’ve just begun HITLER by Ian Kershaw. Fascinating. And full of zing. Did you know that Hitler’s father:

• Smoked like a chimney
• Went to beer table after work instead of home
• Took little interest in family and had multiple affairs with women
• Beat Adolf almost daily, his gentle mother sometimes waiting outside the door while he thrashed his son
• Had a passion for bee-keeping

See, it’s weird, unexpected, almost against-type details like the last one that always seem to stimulate the zing meters.

3 ways that snakes kill

Let’s see: digest you, hundreds of blood clots, and brain attacks. Cool visuals of how the 3 types of venom work!

And article explaining more about venom and why, for instance, sea snakes have such quick killing venom or why cobras have venom that could kill an elephant with one bite.

So after reading this, I’m thinking of Vonda McIntyre’s Dreamsnake where in the future this woman uses snakes to manufacture medicine. Not in a factory, but in the snakes themselves. And she delivers them through natures brilliantly evolved hypodermics.

But what other applications are there of this to a story? Heck, a murder mystery where you’d need to know the type of venom and the snakes nearby, a new type of dragon’s breath (instead of fire, could they breathe out a fog of one of the three toxins?), some new enzyme protein cocktail that leads to…superhero skills or is it immortality?

Humans are blind. Really, think about all the things we cannot hear, see, smell, feel. Our world is so small. So when a device comes along that reveals a new part of the sensory spectrums we use, then I say, “cool!”

Of course, when I was a kid, you’d see ads for the X-ray glasses in all the boy magazines along with ads for Sea Monkeys and whoopee-cushions.

Well, now they’re not just gimmicks. You’ve heard of x-rays, gamma rays, ultraviolet rays, infrared–well, here are t-rays.

T-rays are emitted by all the objects around you, but they cannot be seen by humans. T-rays can go through just about anything except metal and water. People who spend serious time thinking about T-rays say this ability, the result of their short wavelengths, make them ideal candidates for certain types of medical imaging.

Among other potential uses imagined are: safer versions of X-rays; scanning baggage at airports; identifying large biological molecules such as proteins, viruses and bacteria; and even measuring the effectiveness of facial moisturizers. Read article here.

Here’s where t-rays fit on the electromagnetic spectrum.

Light Sources

And here’s the article that sparked it all today: Britain makes camera that “sees” under clothes. I guess one of those egg-head boys grew up and decided to make his dream come true, all in the name of science, medicine, and the Queen, of course.

The Sequel to Spiderman, Peter Parker, & The Gift of Writer’s Block.

The Writer’s Trance & The Four Trance Breakers

Sometimes words fail me…

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I thought all such things were hoaxes.  Above is a picture of John after having been found and saved.

John Ssebunya, the Ugandan Monkey Boy
Date found: 1991
Age when found: 6
Location: Uganda
Years in the wild: 3
Animals: monkeys

John ran and hid in a forest, about 2-3 km from his house after witnessing the murder of his mother by his father. His father was known to be an alcoholic and violent.

John says he was so frightened of his father that he stayed in the forest. It is possible that he had some degree of mental handicap at that time and this may have contributed to the fact that he did not understand that he should have sought help from other adults.

He was aged roughly 4 or 5 at the time that he was found in 1989 according to witnesses like Mrs Milly Sseba who found him in the forest. There is no birth certificate…

John identified the mokes as Cercopithicus Aethiops (the common African Grey or Green Vervet Monkey). This is very significant as this is one of the very few species of mammal that lives in social groups and will accept and tolerate a lone individual of another species of monkey living alongside their group. Other monkeys and apes will not do this — chimpanzees for example would simply eat a human child.

Read more here.

Indeed zing, but heart wrenching.

Over 200 people frozen in place

Dude!