Growth of a Tiny Mind

Growth of a Tiny Mind

In order to relieve the tedium induced by weeks of reading nothing but the Bible, the Talmud, and sundry commentaries on tractates Avoyde Zoro and Khulin, including some fairly complicated sections of the Shulkhan Orukh and its successors, I’ve had to pick up...
And We Owe It All To Income Tax…

And We Owe It All To Income Tax…

Passover’s done, Bob Hope’s on the TV, serenading Jane Russell with “Buttons and Bows,” it’s overcast and slightly rainy in Toronto, but Jane Russell has just taken over the whole of my fifty-one inch television screen–my ancestors...
Shnortnin’ Bread for Pesach

Shnortnin’ Bread for Pesach

I’d like to blame Pesach shopping for my failure to write a blog post last week, but Mrs. Wex, a berye of the very first order, has long since had all the makings of kosher-for Passover Farfelroons safely stowed in knotted plastic bags in a corner of our...
Let’s Just Say Hors D’Oeuvre

Let’s Just Say Hors D’Oeuvre

“I spent Purim at a shiva” is just further proof that phrases that sound great as Country & Western titles are a lot less fun when they describe your life. Four people I know died in the past week, among them an uncle for whom “beloved” was...
Homentash

Homentash

With Purim almost here, it’s time for me to recall the observations about homentashn that I made a few years ago in Just Say Nu. In writing about certain types of Yiddish slang, I remarked that pirge (think “perogie”) and knish (think beef)  can both...