Random Ramblings of a Social Outcast (Free subscription) | 10/25/2009
The purpose of life is not to be happy - but to matter, to be productive, to be useful, to have it make some difference that you have lived at all. ~Leo Rosten I was flicking through pages on the net when I came across this quote, I read it and at first I didn't think much about it. But for some reason I re-read it, absorbed it and it struck a chord with me. The more I think about it, the more I realise...
Not PC (Free subscription) | 09/30/2009
This week Bernard Darnton says something political, and doesn’t even tell the Electoral Commission what time he’ll be home. The Electoral Finance Act is back from the grave. It turns out that incumbency protection is far more appealing when you’re the incumbent. The Labour press release on the topic is not so much eye-opening as gob-opening. David Parker complains that “the...
YID With LID (Free subscription) | 09/14/2009
In his book, Joys of Yiddish Leo Rosten defined Chutzpah as "A boy, having just been convicted of murdering his parents, begs the judge for leniency because he is an orphan. A modern example may be ACORN, the corrupt community organizing group. Remember those 14 states where ACORN is being investigated for voter fraud, that did not deter the government from giving the community organizing group....
Bark Bark Woof Woof (Free subscription) | 08/25/2009
Are you ready for this? The latest right-wing lunatic fringe guessing game is now whether or not President Obama was circumcised . What is it with right-wingers and Democratic penises, anyway? I seriously think these people have some issues that would make Sigmund Freud quit the business. On the other hand, it does give me a chance to tell one of my favorite jokes from Leo Rosten's classic The Joys...
Israelated (Free subscription) | 08/09/2009
Sally ZelikovskyAmerican Thinker Democrat bigwigs and their media shills have concocted a libelous narrative of the town hall phenomenon that has shaken up the party's health care plans. They meet the classic definition of Chutzpah, as explained by Leo Rosten in the Joy of Yiddish: Gall, brazen nerve, effrontery, incredible "guts"; presumption plus arrogance such as no other word, and no...
Georgia Newsroom (Free subscription) | 08/09/2009
The Chutzpah of the Town Hall Libel By Sally Zelikovsky | American Thinker Democrat bigwigs and their media shills have concocted a libelous narrative of the town hall phenomenon that has shaken up the party’s health care plans. They meet the classic definition of Chutzpah, as explained by Leo Rosten in the Joy of Yiddish: Gall, [...]
Jeremiah's Vanishing New York (Free subscription) | 06/24/2009
Grieve and I were on the same wavelength recently when we both thought of doing a screenshot guide to Kubrick's Killer's Kiss , which played this weekend at IFC. As he showed, Killer's Kiss is one of the best cinematic sources of imagery from 1950s New York City. It's packed with scenes of Times Square, and one of my favorite recurring scenes in the film takes place at a taxi dance hall. all images...
Running 'Cause I Can't Fly (Free subscription) | 05/27/2009
"Then Newman said, “My father once told me a story I always think of, when the going gets rough and things look hopeless. It’s about Destiny…. Destiny came down to an island, centuries ago, and summoned three of the inhabitants before him. ‘What would you do,’ asked Destiny, ‘if I told you that tomorrow this island will be completely inundated by an immense...
Taking Hayek Seriously (Free subscription) | 04/13/2009
Did John Maynard Keynes know the work of Knut Wicksell, did he read Schumpeter, what economics did he know? Friedrich Hayek answers these questions and more in an interview with Leo Rosten: ROSTEN: … Is it true that he said, “I am no longer a Keynesian”? HAYEK: I haven’t heard him say so; it’s quite likely. But, [...]
Jewlicious (Free subscription) | 04/03/2009
To many, Yiddish has got a flavour of shtetl nostalgia to it, but anybody who is friends with native speakers knows that the language is alive and thriving and as colourful as it gets. Between Leo Rosten and Uriel Weinreich, a lot of books have been written about Yiddish, some great, others so-so. Among the [...]
Mises Economics Blog (Free subscription) | 03/23/2009
The 1978 interviews with Friedrich Hayek conducted by Earlene Craver, Axel Leijonhufvud, Leo Rosten, Jack High, James Buchanan, Robert Bork, Thomas Hazlett, Armen Alchian, and Robert Chitester in 1978 are now available on the internet. The interviews are available in...
Taking Hayek Seriously (Free subscription) | 03/23/2009
If you want to understand who Friedrich Hayek is and what his life was all about, you can’t do better than read the transcripts of the 1978 interviews with Friedrich Hayek conducted by Earlene Craver, Axel Leijonhufvud, Leo Rosten, Jack High, James Buchanan, Robert Bork, Thomas Hazlett, Armen Alchian, and Robert Chitester in October and [...]
Modern Mitzvot (Free subscription) | 02/09/2009
People familiar with Leo Rosten’s Joys of Yiddish will recognize this illustration of the ways that Yiddish’s emphasis on tone and inflection to express meaning has influenced English: Even the English question “I should buy two tickets for her concert'” can take on seven meanings depending on where the emphasis is placed — a common thing [...]
Ideas (Free subscription) | 12/17/2008
Leo Rosten, in his (delightful) The Joys of Yiddish , tells the following story: An official brought the chief rabbi of a town before the Court of the Inquisition and told him, "We will leave the fate of your people to God. I am putting two slips of paper in this box. On one is written 'Guilty.' On the other is written 'Innocent.' Draw." Now this inquisitor was known to seek the slaughter...
Bumpshack (Free subscription) | 10/07/2008
“The only reason for being a professional writer is that you can’t help it.” Leo Rosten US (Polish-born) author (1908 - )
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