MEGO February 10, 2010

All of us warn family and friends  to beware of strangers as if  unknown people on the street are all out to knife us. When I hear this, MEGO, mine eyes glaze over at the stupidity of the remark. It is so contrary to what many experience.

The unacquainted have helped this blogger in many dire  moments on the street. When I fell once and couldn’t  get up, a male pedestrian came over, gently pulled me up, and led me home. One day while I was checking some cash on the way to Key Foods,  a woman behind me spoke up and handed over a $20 bill which had fallen from my hand. While crossing Chapel Street in New Haven as a youngster,  I was pulled by an unknown man out of the path of an oncoming car. 

Is it any wonder my eyes glaze over when my ears hear that warning?

Italglish February 9, 2010

I was brought up with both English and Italian. Naturally, the sweet sounds of the Romance language are music to my ears. But the Italian spoken today has a new ring and is a far cry from then. It‘s called Italglish. Italians are using it mainly out of necessity because their language does not accommodate itself easily to new technology. There are few technical terms. So they have wordnapped technology nouns from English and by adding the Italian infinitive are to the ending, they’ve invented Italglish.

Examples: checkare  email  means, check the e-mail. Voglio googlare  means, I want to google it. Vado a faxare means, I’m going to fax it. These hybrids are somewhat distressing. They have a Waspy ring and are in stark contrast to the mellow Latinate words.

 Oh, excuse me, must go. End of post. Have to download something. Devo downloadare. 

Smart Jew January 29, 2010

We frequently hear the expression, the smart Jew. One is left with the idea that all Jews are smart, and we rarely hear members of other ethnic groups called smart, as a whole. In fact, some are referred to as dumb, e.g., the Poles or Polacks. (Frederic Chopin and Henryk Sienkiewicz are turning in their graves.)

Enuf of epithets! Let’s show some respect.

Keeping up with words January 15, 2010

Here are some offbeat words and phrases newly learned by your blogger that might beguile you (unless you already know them).

     Generation O (for Obama)–college kids

     Generation D–the digital generation

     Geezer glut–large number of seniors that results as baby boomers age 

    Shopgrifting–buying something, using it and returning it within a certain time to get your money back