Where does “nu” come from?

I’ve been doing a great deal of research lately into the origins and history of the Yiddish word nu and have made a discovery that has changed my whole outlook on life.

If you think that nu comes from German, you’re wrong; if you try to trace it back to Slavic, you’re going to hit a dead end. As I’ve just found out, we’ve been nu-ing since we were slaves in Egypt, and maybe even before.

It turns out that Nu (with a capital “N”) was the Egyptian name for the limitless cosmic waters that precede creation; ancient Egyptian texts describe the creator as being alone with Nu before the work of creation had even begun. They also tell us that creation will one day be destroyed and all will be returned to Nu. (more...)

Gimme a pigfoot

This is the third of five guest blog posts I wrote for Powell's Books.

Minibrix was about as handy as Wex ever got...

Anybody who's ever seen me try to hammer a nail into a piece of wood or build a scale model of the Temple of Solomon out of kitchen matches and popsicle sticks will know what I mean when I say that forcing me to sit through two years of shop class just because I happened to be born with a visible locus of circumcision was one of the greatest blunders in the history of Canadian education. (more...)

Toronto Reading Series

On Tuesday 24th November Michael Wex gave a talk to the Toronto Reading Series about his writing process.

He was the third of three authors (the others being Ian Brown talking about his book The Boy in the Moon: A Father's Search for His Disabled Son and Catherine Gildiner with After the Falls) talking about what brought them to write their books and how they went about it.

Wex the luftmentsh

Traveling from town to town on the Jewish Book Fair circuit, I’m beginning to feel like part of the great collective known as orkhe-porkhe--hoboes, vagrants, yidishe bindlestiffs like Stuffy Derma, the tramp on the old Milton the Monster Show. The term comes from the Hebrew oreakh poreakh, "a flying guest,” one who's here today and gone tomorrow. (more...)

Santa’s message

Last year we bought a four-foot tall animatronic Santa Claus.

If you talk into the microphone that comes in the box you can make Santa talk. It was just too tempting to make him an old Jewish man. So here's Santa's message. Just for you.