It's been a lovely weekend so far in the 305. Dadber dropped off D2 for her trip to Savannah, and Wifey and I drove to Edgewater to meet D1 and Joey at a nice restaurant -- Mimi's, on 25th and Biscayne. We caught up, and Wifey drove home, and because we were still feeling young and crazy at evening's end, we stopped off at the nitrogen yogurt place for a couple of kiddie cups.
This am, we left early and parked at Joelle and Kenny's place, which is steps from one of the entrances to the Grove Arts Festival. Kenny, retired US Navy Captain, scored us a nice discount -- $10 entrance instead of $25. We talked about how much folk who can well afford full price still get disproportionate happiness from a bargain.
Our friends bought a very nice piece for their new house, and Wifey and I enjoyed the venue, but bought nothing. We're still in serious decluttering mode -- many framed paintings are still awaiting placement -- so the last thing we needed was to add to the pile.
We walked to McFarland, and Joelle scored us a table at Harry's Pizza -- it also occurred to Kenny and I that probably never in our lives have we refused to eat pizza. Wifey was way tired -- we had walked near 2 miles, which is a lot for her, and so Kenny accompanied us to his building, to get us out, and Joelle stayed and walked the St. Stephens show, which goes on along with the larger Grove fest. They needed to meet to schlep home their new artwork.
A lovely afternoon nap awaited us -- me for an hour, and Wifey for 3. Tonight we have zero planned -- Jonathan is himself in the Grove, and D2 enjoying her girl time in Savannah.
But this tale involves a word search, of the Yiddish persuasion.
I had an unsettling call with someone earlier in the day. The details don't matter, but her comments and thought processes made me think of the Yiddish word sechel -- which means, loosely, common sense, and savvy -- the type of practical intelligence one needs to advance in life.
This person had and has zero sechel -- a total absence of any real sense. And so I wondered -- what is a good antonym for sechel.
I probably know more Yiddish than most of my peers -- third generation Ashkenazi Jews -- as my parents were both fluent in it. Sadly, they never taught it to us -- it was the language they used when they didn't want the kids to understand.
Wifey learned it -- along with her first language, Hebrew, and at 4 years old, English. She always claims to be able to "understand fluent Yiddish," as it was the language she heard at home.
Certain words came to mind immediately -- schlemiel and schlmazel, of course. But a schlemiel is more of a klutz, and a schlmazel his victim -- not a true antonym of a person with common and intellectual sense.
Barry came up with tom -- a favorite of his Dad's, which translates roughly to fool. Closer, but still I searched.
The suggestions came via text: putz, schmo, schmeggy -- Norman added these. They were all acceptable, but Yiddish is famous for having the perfect word for an insult, and these fell a bit short.
Well, as I drove to Edgewater, Wifey searched on her phone. And she came up with a term that describes, at least, the behavior of someone I was looking to describe: narishkeit. It means, roughly , foolish or stupid behavior. I don't think there's a noun that goes with it, like narish, but plan to continue my search.
It brought back warm memories to me -- the days as an English major, parsing word meanings in class. I wish I spoke Yiddish fluently.
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