Archive for the ‘Borrowing’ Category

Don’t ask!

January 31, 2021

Today’s morning name, but it comes with crucial context. The Don’t ask! in question is not the neutral use of the negative imperative, advising the addressee not to ask someone about something (Don’t ask them about the ducks in the kitchen; that just makes them crazy), but instead is a formula of Yiddish-influenced English, normally used only by (American) Jews (or gentiles culturally close to this community), when someone has in fact just asked about the matter in question (the tsuris tsores ‘troubles’); the speaker doesn’t go on to avoid this sensitive matter, but instead embraces it, launching into kvetching ‘complaining’ about it.

The formula Don’t ask!  then serves as an announcement — a kind of alarm bell, if you will — that the speaker is about to go off on a (perhaps extended) kvetch.

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Dog massage

October 17, 2016

Today’s Bizarro:

(If you’re puzzled by the odd symbols in the cartoon — Dan Piraro says there are 3 in this strip — see this Page.)

In case you didn’t know that Shih Tzu is the name of a breed of dog, you can infer that from the cartoon, and you can see that the little dogs are (absurdly) being used to give a massage here. That’s funny in a way, but to really appreciate the cartoon, you have to know that there’s a type of massage known as shiatsu. Cultural knowledge looms again.

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piadini

July 13, 2015

New at Applebee’s Grill & Bar:

NEW MAPLE BACON CHICKEN PIADINI
Cedar-seasoned chicken, cheddar, maple mustard, bacon, grilled Piadini wrap. $10.49

(#1)

This is one of Appelebee’s new “handheld” sandwiches, a wrap-and-roll inumber that should (depending on the diameter of the roll) be reasonably manageable with one hand.

Three things here: the meter of the sandwich name; the notion of a handheld sandwich; and the word piadini.

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