by
Marjorie Gottlieb Wolfe

Syosset, New York

*The Yiddish word for belly button is "pupik." According to Leo Rosten, It is pronounced PU (the u of "put") - pik, to rhyme with "look it."

"Research is formalized curiosity. It is prying with a purpose," says Zora Neale Hurston.

Colleges and universities spend a great deal of time and money doing research. The New York Times recently reported on research being conducted at North Carolina State University. A team of scientists are NOT studying "parkh" (scalp) disease, "liber" (liver) disease, "tsukerkrenk" (diabetes), "vantz" (bedbugs) or the cause of "shpilkes" (sitting on pins and needles.) No, they're studying the "pupik." They've taken navel-gazing to a whole new level and discovered there are 1,400 strains of bacteria lurking in human belly buttons. No, I'm not being "humoristish" (humorous).

I grew up hearing several expressions which contained the word "pupik":

• "Zoll vaksen tsibiliss in zein pupik!" (or) "Zol vaksn tsibeles in zayn pupik!" (Onions should grow in his navel!) or...What does he do? He sits around all day looking at his pupik."
  
  
• "A sheynm dank in pupik." (A pretty thanks in the navel.) or,,,"Thanks for nothing."

Leo Rosten ("The New Joys of Yiddish") wrote that a classic definition of an unrealistic, impractical type is this: "He's the kind who worries whether a flea has a pupik."

Back to the team of scientists. They asked 95 volunteers to allow a team of micro- biologists to take swabs from inside their navels and twist them around three times. They then placed the swabs in vials and grew the bacteria into cultures.

Once the cultures grew "groys" (big) enough, they were photographed and their DNA was extracted for "farglaykh" (comparison) to known bacteria. (Think CSI!)

"Di frage" (The question): Why investigate the "pupik"? Their answer: Because "everybody has one; it's what once connected us to our past." They continued, "Yes, we barely notice it in our daily lives, to the point that few people actually "vashn" (wash) theirs. Yes, this is great for bacteria.

The project director, "Jiri Huler, said, "We're probably the only ones studying human belly buttons on such a large scale."

I wonder whether their results may just inspire us to spend a few more minutes scrubbing the "pupik" tomorrow.
-------------------------------------------
Marjorie Gottlieb Wolfe wonders whether "innies" have more bacteria than "outies."

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___________________________________________
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

NU, what are you waiting for?  Order the book!

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