An intriguing romp for word and trivia mavens.
The languages of the Jewish and black ghettos have enriched the wider American vernacular, according to this pop-linguistics book.
Foster (Ribbin’ Jivin’ and Playin’ the Dozens, 2012, etc.), an emeritus professor of education at the State University of New York at Buffalo, explores the mainstream success of two minority verbal cultures. After a fun but pretty hard vocabulary test—“NOSH is to FRESS as NEBBISH is to: a) shtchav b) shnuk c) shmatte d) baleboss”—the work’s centerpiece is a lengthy glossary of selected Yiddish and Jive expressions that have entered common parlance. The former include such essential Yiddish-isms as “kosher,” “bagel,” “tush,” and “chutzpa” along with more exotic concepts like “farklempt”—agitated or depressed—and the arcane anatomical terms “putz,” “schlong,” “schmuck,” and “shvantz,” all of which denote a feature of the male reproductive system. Jive entries include the classics “bling-bling” and “booty call”; the somewhat dated “playin’ the dozens” (meaning competitive yo’-mama insults); locutions that most people don’t know came from the ghetto, like from the “get-go” and “24/7”; and arcane terms for white people, such as “Mr. charlie” and “ofay”—the latter said to come from the pig Latin for “foes.” The author’s entries give dictionary definitions along with extensive usage examples gleaned from books, movies, newspaper articles, ads, and even license plates. “ISHLPKDS” (I SCHLEP KIDS) declares the plate on one mom’s minivan. Additional chapters offer a miscellany of information and historical background. These include sections on gentiles who spoke Yiddish, including novelist Ralph Ellison and actors James Cagney and Michael Caine; “Shabbos goy,” gentiles who performed chores forbidden to Jews on the Sabbath, among them Colin Powell, Harry Truman, and Elvis Presley; the Harlem Renaissance; the “Green Book” guide used by black motorists and travelers to find accommodations in the segregated South under Jim Crow; and “Strange Fruit,” Billie Holiday’s famous anti-lynching protest song. It’s all a bit random and jumbled, but Foster offers a tasty feast of curious and intriguing lore for readers (and writers) looking to spice up their language.
An intriguing romp for word and trivia mavens.Pub Date: April 19, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-72746-535-8
Page Count: 178
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.
The legendary booze-addled metal rocker turned reality-TV star comes clean in his tell-all autobiography.
Although brought up in the bleak British factory town of Aston, John “Ozzy” Osbourne’s tragicomic rags-to-riches tale is somehow quintessentially American. It’s an epic dream/nightmare that takes him from Winson Green prison in 1966 to a presidential dinner with George W. Bush in 2004. Tracing his adult life from petty thief and slaughterhouse worker to rock star, Osbourne’s first-person slang-and-expletive-driven style comes off like he’s casually relating his story while knocking back pints at the pub. “What you read here,” he writes, “is what dribbled out of the jelly I call my brain when I asked it for my life story.” During the late 1960s his transformation from inept shoplifter to notorious Black Sabbath frontman was unlikely enough. In fact, the band got its first paying gigs by waiting outside concert venues hoping the regularly scheduled act wouldn’t show. After a few years, Osbourne and his bandmates were touring America and becoming millionaires from their riff-heavy doom music. As expected, with success came personal excess and inevitable alienation from the other members of the group. But as a solo performer, Osbourne’s predilection for guns, drink, drugs, near-death experiences, cruelty to animals and relieving himself in public soon became the stuff of legend. His most infamous exploits—biting the head off a bat and accidentally urinating on the Alamo—are addressed, but they seem tame compared to other dark moments of his checkered past: nearly killing his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced blackout, waking up after a bender in the middle of a busy highway, burning down his backyard, etc. Osbourne is confessional to a fault, jeopardizing his demonic-rocker reputation with glib remarks about his love for Paul McCartney and Robin Williams. The most distinguishing feature of the book is the staggering chapter-by-chapter accumulation of drunken mishaps, bodily dysfunctions and drug-induced mayhem over a 40-plus-year career—a résumé of anti-social atrocities comparable to any of rock ’n’ roll’s most reckless outlaws.
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-56989-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009
IN THE NEWS
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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