As you probably know, for more than 80 years the Jewish Daily Forward's
legendary advice column, "A Bintel Brief" ("a bundle of letters")
dispensed advice to its readers.
There are many books about the love letters of famous folks like Winston
Churchill, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Beethoven, and George Bernard Shaw.
Henry James was a prolific letter writer, and Jane Austen was a
huge fan of letter writing.
The late Ann
Landers (Esther "Eppie" Pauline Friedman Lederer)
turned out 365 columns a "yor" for decades, and often rewarded the
reader with a chuckle. She once reassured
husbands bothered by wifely inattention:
"
Many are cold, but few are frozen." Even
with her busy schedule, she still found time to
write to her "tokhter" (daughter), Margo, wherever she was.
Ann Landers said, "A
letter is when my arm
falls off...a note is when I lose two fingers."
I recently had
the pleasure of reading Margo Howard's book titled, "A Life in Letters -
Ann Landers' Letters To Her Only Child." In
the Introduction, the author writes:
Mother's Jewishness
becomes another theme in the letters...Mother's attachment
to Yiddish, I believe, came from having
immigrant parents speaking the mother
tongue even when they'd learned English. The Yiddishisms Mother grew up
with delighted her, and she taught many of
them to me. Because her parents, Abe
and Becky Friedman, died relatively
young, I think continuing to use Yiddish
phrases helped mother feel tied to her
girlhood. Interestingly, the greatest
compliment she could pay someone was
to say that he or she was a "mensch."
In 1993 Ann Landers
wrote about the death of her mother-in-law, Gustie Lederer, whose
affectionate nickname for Eppie was "Eppeleh
with the Keppeleh," Yiddish for "Little Eppie
with the good head." And in 2002, Jeffrey
Zaslow once wrote a piece about Ann Landers for the Forward. He titled it,"How
an Iowa Meydl Became Queen of Advice.""
Shown below are some of the Yiddish terms
used in the correspondence between Ann
Landers and her daughter, Margo:
"Bens
Licht" -
Light candles. One letter,
written on a Saturday, asked
Margo, "Did you Bens Licht
[light candles] last night?"
"plotzing" -
Margo defined "plotzing" as
dying, not in the literal sense.
Literally, it means exploding.
The Alternative Yiddish
Dictionary defines the verb,"plotz" as "fall down dead right
now. Ham and cheese sand-
wiches? If your grandfather
weren't already dead, he'd
plotz."
And on the radio program, "Car Talk," the "staff
mortician" is named Barry L.
Plotz. :-)
"mensch" -
Ann Landers signed one of
her letters:
xxxxx to you and the mensch and the kids. Nonna (The mensch referred to her son-in-law, Ken Howard.)
"magilla" -
Ms. Landers wrote, "Turn
the
page...or have you fallen
asleep???? This magilla is
running on and on and I
haven't said much."
According to Weiner and
Devilman ("Yiddish with Dick
and Jane"), "The Megillah is
the Book of Esther, a long,
tedious account read in the
synagogue during the holiday
of Purim. Thus, a lengthy
story or recitation of events
full of boring detail: "Then
someody asked him about his
prostate operation, and we
had to sit through the whole
megillah."
"messer
in holdz" -
Ann Landers wrote, "Once in a while I would hear...'between
you and I'...and it would be
like a messer in holdz (that
means a knife in the neck.)"
"hozzerie"/"chaserie" -
Ann told Margo, "Last,
but certainly not least, you must
stop eating all day long--and
you should not eat hozzerie,
which means greasy, fatty
foods...rich stuff..." The author reminds everyone
that there's no Yiddish word
for "supersize me."
"kinderloch" -
Children. Ann signed one letter
as follows: "Kiss the GG and
the kinderloch."
"Vey" -
Landers wrote, "[Enclosures:
(l) a newsclip of a man named
Regis Vey. She typed on it: "We call him "Oi" for short."
"mishpocha" -
Family
or friends
Landers wrote, "I am really
happy that you are seeing
something of the mishpocha...
We know some of our relatives
are nutty--tricky--irresponsible--
unpredictable and downright
double-crossers, but then we
take 'em...warts and all
because there is no way to
make them different."
"hock
in vassair" -
Ms. Laders wrote, "Of course,
we both swim like a 'hock in
vassair--' This means like a
rock in the water..." Writer's
comment: "vaser" means
water.
"mahoots" "der
mekhutn" -
Ms. Landers wrote Margo: "Daddy bought three gorgeous
suits and a magnificent cream-
colored camel's hair coat
(yeah...from a real camel...).
I got myself a few choice rags,
too...you shouldn't be ashamed
of us when we get to meet the
mahoots."Writer's comment: "They'll be
'oysgeputst'--dressed up (to the
hilt!)
"tochas" Buttocks -
Ms. Landers wrote, "Ken reports
that you are getting thin as a
rail. Don't overdo it. We don't
want you to look tubercular,
heaven forbid. No hip bones
should stick out. Just get that
tochas under control." Writer's comment: "Lomir redn
fun freylikher zakhn." (Let's talk
about more cheerful things.)
___________________________________________ Marjorie Gottlieb Wolfe is the author of
two books:
"Yiddish for Dog & Cat Lovers" and
"Are Yentas, Kibitzers, & Tummlers Weapons of Mass Instruction? Yiddish
Trivia." To order a copy, go to her
website: MarjorieGottliebWolfe.com
