Schmegoogle: Yiddish Words for Modern Times
by Daniel Klein
Pub Date 01 Sep 2020
read courtesy of http://netgalley.com
You had me at schmegoogle! Go ahead. Google your Cousin Hershel. Nothing comes up? He's a schmegoogle. Also, you'd better be a good tipper when your Uber driver is uber menschlich! Do you think we could get all of our click bait to instead be called bubbe maiseh-trap? And they're just from chapter 1!
It's more like reading a joke book than a dictionary, but either way, it's funny! Included are both old, i.e., used elsewhere and included here, and new phrases. Besides word entries with definitions, examples, and word origins, Klein includes stand alone asides that are mini comic sets in themselves. (I loved "The Roth Conundrum" on page 45.)
One thing it's missing is the pronunciation cues. The goyim might not get the references to something they might actually have heard if they don't recognize the word. Even phonetic clues would be helpful.
I hope you enjoy this review. I'd hate to think I'd done a good job only gifilted with schmortification. At least I'm not a phudnik.
This book would make a fun gift for any alte kakers you know.
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