Here’s an excerpt from an e-mail that came to me this week. If it were atypical, I wouldn’t be posting it. After informing me that he/she had been told about a Yiddish expression with a particular meaning, the writer goes on to make his/her pitch (grammar and spelling as in original):

I promised him I’d get the original Yiddish version, but he died before I could find it.
So?
Incudentally, I am a professional narrator if audiobooks and would love to take a shot at “Born to Kvetch.”

So? This is how you ask. “He died…so?” So all men are mortal; Socrates is a man; and Wex should work for free? And if that ain’t enough, I’m also supposed to give him/her a job? Tsaytn derlebt; o tempora, o Moyshes.

The audio of Born to Kvetch, read by the author, was released nearly seven years ago.

WON’T SOME UNIVERSITY PLEASE GIVE ME A JOB?