Today, I learned a great new-to-me Yiddish word: “sitzfleish.” The Ariga Glossary of Yiddish Expressions gives this definition:
Sitzfleish – Patience that can endure sitting
(Lit., sitting flesh).
Please let me use it in a sentence:
“If New Yorkers do not display heroic amounts of sitzfleish, the State may be empty long before Election Day, November, 7, 2006.”
Why do my fellow residents of New York State need great infusions of sitzfleish? Think (a) Spitzer; (b) TV ads; and (c) “New York Is Losing People at Fastest Pace in America,“ New York Sun, by Daniela Gerson, April 20, 2006.
Eliot Spitzer — for whom I will almost certainly vote, should he receive the gubernatorial nomination for the Democratic Party, as now seems nearly inevitable — has been flooding our airwaves and cable lines with election ads for well over a month. The ads are so self-congratulatory, self-righteous, and self-consciously serio-heroic, that I appear to have only two options to salvage my sanity [and supper]: 1) watch no commercial television until after Election Day, or 2) move far beyond the reach of Spitzer’s campaign ads.
Frankly, I don’t think I have the sitzfleish necessary to subject myself to more Spitzer2006 television ads. Luckily, I listen to virtually no commercial radio, so radio-induced nausea has not been a problem.
As we pointed out last December (reacting to Prof. Bainbridge’s question: Spitzer = Thug?), in German:
– the noun spitzer is a sharpener;
– spitze is acuteness, the pinnacle, a sting or a prick;
– the verb spitzen is to nib or sharpen.
Candidate Spitzer is indeed way ahead in all the polls, But, his ads are nibbling away at the enthusiasm of a growing number of his supporters. Already seen as ” a sting or a prick” by his opponents, Spitzer may soon be seen as His Nibs by television viewers across the State, most of whom can never hope to have enough sitzfleish to sit through Spitzer2006 camgaign ads for the next 5+ months.
Mark Gilbert has pondered “The unintended economic consequences” of Eliot Spitzer’s actions as NYS Attorney General. I worry about the demographic consequences, as we all head for the nearest State line. Blitzfleishers heading for the exits.
One of my fellow New York State haijin, who might just hit the highway, is Ithaca’s Tom Clausen.
the load tied down —
her painted toe nails
on the dashboard
always takes his time
the custodian watches
the floor dry
railroad crossing
an old man
waves at the rain
straight out
of a dream
another day
zoo safari trail…
ant caravans travel
the railing
……………. by Tom Clausen – Upstate Dim Sum (2003/II)
