Mendele: Yiddish literature and language
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Contents of Vol. 2 no. 149
January 31, 1993
 
1) Truth in advertising (Martin Davis)
2) Afn Shvel and Forward (Seymour Axelrod)
3) Kestlikh (Bob Werman)
4) Buried Dogs (Bob Rothstein)
5) Call for papers (Rosemary Seton/Leonard Prager)

1)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 93 16:22:37 -0500
From: davism@turing.cs.nyu.edu
Subject: truth in advertising

There used to be a restaurant in Berkeley called Balabosta.

Martin Davis

2)----------------------------------------------------
Date: 26 Jan 1993 22:45:50 -0500 (EST)
From: Seymour Axelrod <PTYAXEL@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu>
Subject: Afn Shvel, Forward

Some related questions, and one not.

1.  In *Afn Shvel* No. 287-288, July-December 1992, a harsh
review by M.B.B. (mem-beys-beys) of a transliterated
Yiddish-English dictionary begins with a familiar
expression: "Leygt zikh nisht kayn feygelekh in buzem!"
What does this mean?

2.  Later, the reviewer criticizes the transcription:  "Di
transkriptsie?  Zi toyg af 'tish-un-nayntsik' (oder:
[tof-shin-ayin-hey]-nayntsik)..."  From the context, it's
clearly no compliment--but what does it mean?  There
appears to be a pun on "tish" and "[tof-shin-ayin-hey]",
ayo?

3.  The authoritative (and acerbic) tone of the review
reminds makes me suspect that M.B.B. is Mordkhe Schaechter.
Can anyone on MENDELE confirm or deny?

4.  Unrelated:  Who does Philologos in the English
*Forward*?  Is it a MENDELEnik?  (Or -nitse?)

--Shleyme

3)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed,  27 Jan 93 18:40 +0200
From: RWERMAN%HUJIVMS.bitnet@YaleVM.YCC.Yale.Edu
Subject: RE: kestlikh

Beatrice Santorini writes:

>Apropos Dvosye Bilik's query concerning "kestlikh" in a
>description of the Tsenerene: i don't think it's related to
>"gaystlikh", but rather to German "k"ostlich"---delicious,
>enjoyable, outstanding (of food, and also metaphorically
>used).

and adds the speculation,

>[Hence "af kest"?]

I do not think that af kest, meaning board [as in room and
...] is of that origin, but I am not sure what the origin
was.

When my friend was asked by a Mea Sh'arim dweller how a
good Jewish boy got to University, my friend explained that
he had gotten a "stipendia."  This appeared unfamiliar to
the questioner so my friend went on to explain that it
meant af kest without getting married, a concept that could
be comprehended as kest was one of the awards a rich man
gave his new son-in-law, board without having to work so he
could devote himself to study of Torah [meaning g'mora].


__Bob Werman    rwerman@hujivms.bitnet    rwerman@vms.huji.ac.il
Jerusalem

[Beatrice Santorini is not responsible for that parenthetic
remark: I am.  I had "pencilled in" the remark as a
reminder to look into the matter.  I did and decided not to
use it.  Then I forgot and left it standing.  My apologies
to all and particularly to Beatrice. nm]

4)----------------------------------------------------
Date: 27 Jan 1993 22:28:25 -0500 (EST)
From: rar@titan.ucs.umass.edu
Subject: Buried dogs

The dog is buried not only in Hebrew and Yiddish, but also
in Polish (tu jest pies pogrzebany), Russian (vot gde
sobaka zaryta), Slovak (tu je pes zakopany), etc.  But the
source is usually assumed to be German (da/hier liegt der
Hund begraben).  Keith Spalding's _An Historical Dictionary
of German Figurative Usage_ (Oxford:  Blackwell, 1959--),
s.v. _begraben_, lists various old attestations and some
theories of origin, including the notion that "dog" really
means "treasure," since "it is believed that the hound of
hell [_der Hoellenhund_, Cerberus] guards hidden
treasures."

Bob Rothstein


5)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Sun, 31 Jan 93 10:28:25 IST
From: rosemary seton via lp <RHLE302@HAIFAUVM.BITNET>
Subject: call for papers
 
           Call for Papers for the

     Abraham Nahum Stencl Memorial Volume
 
1993 marks ten years since the death of the London Yiddish
poet, Abraham Nahum Stencl (Avrom-Nokhem Shtentsl), and a
Memorial Volume is being planned to honor his memory. This
volume will include a catalogue of the Stencl Archive at
SOAS (University of London), a subject and title index to
_Loshn un lebn_, the journal founded and edited by Stencl
for four decades, and essays on the life and work of
Stencl, his circle, and on Yiddish culture in Britain
generally.
 
Articles (all of which will be refereed)
on any of the following subjects will be welcomed:
 
1.  The life and work of Abraham Nahum Stencl.

2.  The journal _Loshn un lebn_.

3.  Yiddish language, literature, press, theater, etc. in
    Britain.

4.  Yiddish mss. and rara in British libraries.

5.  Yiddish writers in Berlin in the 1920s and 1930s (ANS
    lived in Berlin from 1921 to 1936).

6.  Stencl's Polish background -- Czeladz and the
    surrounding shetls and towns, especially Bedzin and
    Sosnovtse (Polish: Sosnowiec).

7.  The British period in the lives of Yiddish writers
    who settled permamently elsewhere.

8.  The Yiddish-language labor movement in Britain;
    the Bund representation in London; Shmuel Ziglboym
    (Artur) {Samuel Ciegelbaum} (1895-1943).

9.  Translations of the work of Stencl or of any other
    Yiddish writer closely associated with Britain.

10.  Any subject which touches upon Yiddish culture and has
     a British dimension as well.
 
Articles are to be in English, typed in Word Perfect 5.1 or
in some program easily imported to WP5.1.  They should be
submitted on diskette by 1 September 1993 or earlier to
Leonard Prager, Department of English, University of Haifa,
Haifa, Israel 31905.
 
      Rosemary Seton, Archivist
      Stencl Archive, SOAS (University of London)
      Thornhaugh St., Russell Square.,
      London WC1H OXG, England (UK)

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End of Mendele Vol 2.149