Shtetl Mentality

All you need is a celebrity or politician to throw a Yiddish word around, and suddenly everyone is a buzz and kibbitzing. NY Times columnist Maureen Dowd recently quoted a top Democrat as saying "I'm telling you, man, it's something about our party, the shtetl mentality."

Of course, most people have no idea what "Shtetl" even means. Thanks to Maureen Dowd "Shtetl," a Yiddish word meaning "a 19th-century Eastern European Jewish village" is currently the #4 most searched word on the internet! Could you plotz?

Read Maureen Dowd's entire NY Times article here.

Feel free to kvetch or kvell in the comments section.

Word of the Week: Schlep

We're convinced that Yiddish is not only making a comeback, but that it is becoming a part of our everyday English vernacular. (See our previous Sopranos Post) Case in point - This week The New York Times ran an article titled Where the City Schleps. We also noticed that Daily Candy used schlep in one of their emails too.

Speaking of schlepping, Splendora also featured our Yiddish Phrase Bag this week.

For more Yiddish goodies, visit ChosenCouture.com.

Sopranos Shocker

No, we're not talking about anyone getting whacked on last night's episode of the Sopranos- we're talking about the use of the Yiddish word tsuris! Sure we've all hear oy, putz, and shmuck used on TV, but this might be a first for tsuris!

Oy! Vat at billboard!

Vatz up with this billboard advertising American Apparel? The shmatte company sure knows how to get our attention. The Forward reports that This billboard featuring Woody Allen dressed as a Chasid just went up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. In Yiddish, it states "the holy rebbe."