Marilla

Blog Talk Radio interview with Bonnie Graham aka RadioRed

Yesterday Michael gave Bonnie Graham an interview about how to be a mentsh for Blog Talk Radio. You can listen to it by clicking on the player below (Wex's is the first part of the show - it's about half an... Read more here

Marilla

Camp Nayvelt – finally online

Wex is pretty famous for his unique brand of story-telling/stand-up. Now for the first time online we have a really great recording of his piece "Camp Nayvelt" which describes how he didn't go to the progressive Yiddish summer camp. It was performed at the 2009 Klezkamp Roadshow as part of the Conney Project on Jewish Arts at the University of Wisconsin. All of the Klezkamp Roadshow 2009 concert videos... Read more here

Wex

Looking like a beaten out willow twig on Sukkes

Between ritualized gluttony, ritualized fasting, hours and hours of ritual prayer and almost as many hours of trying to sleep in a Succah (often preceded by even more hours of ritual cursing while trying to build the Succah), the average observant Jew looks and feels vi an opgeshlogene heshayne, a beat-out willow twig, by the time Hoshana Rabba rolls around. The idiom is based on one of the plants used as... Read more here

Marilla

Michael Wex discusses Haniel Long’s ‘The Marvellous Adventure of Cabeza de Vaca’

The Marvellous Adventure of Cabeza de Vaca by Haniel Long The Afterword is the books blog for Canadian newspaper The National Post. Recently Wex was asked (as were several other Canadian authors) to answer this question: If you could add one book to the high school curriculum – a book which students couldn't graduate with until it was read – what would it be, and why? Wex's choice was The Marvellous... Read more here

Wex

Go talk to the wall

Gey, red tsu der vant, “Go, talk to the wall”—Israelis and their enemies alike seem to feel misrepresented by one or another sector of the media, who are toyb vi di vant, “deaf as the wall,” to their particular point of view. The Yiddish wall does so much more than keep the insides of buildings off of streets and lawns. It figures in many idioms, a surprising number of which have to do with... Read more here

Marilla

“How to Be a Mentsh” hits the bestseller list

Wex and Farfl celebrate the good news We were delighted to hear today that How to Be a Mentsh (and Not a Shmuck) made it onto the Maclean's non-fiction bestseller list just two weeks after its publication. Thanks to Adria Iwasutiak from Knopf for passing on the good news and sending us the link. You can see the full list on the Maclean's website here. We may celebrate with some Jewish deli... Read more here

Marilla

Canadian launch of How to Be a Mentsh

Wex explains how not to be a shmuck Last night saw the Canadian launch party of How to Be a Mentsh (and Not a Shmuck) at the Gladstone Hotel in Toronto. Michael Wex signs copies of How to Be a Mentsh. His beer waits patiently. Organized by TINARS (This Is Not A Reading Series), the Ashkenaz Foundation and Knopf Canada the launch was a fun party with Wex opening with the Beatnik story and following... Read more here