a look over the shoulder.
my worst fear.
Half submerged in New York's collective unconscious, alongside dirty bombs and dark-alley robberies, is the nightmare of somehow winding up in the path of an oncoming train.i can't help but feel that this somehow makes me more of a "new yorker."
(though it probably does not, as i've only been here for 13 months.)
what did make me feel like a real new yorker was taking in an event at the 92nd street y last night: pete hamill and tom wolfe (the respective voices of new york's working class and bourgeoisie) having a conversation for those of us who paid $25 a head.
(ed koch was a few rows in front of me. that, in and of itself, made me feel like i had finally made it to new york.)
i told the agent that i was a real jew now: i'd made it to the y on the upper east side! he said i was still a shiksa. then he started getting all yiddish on me, saying something about shmaltz and being his bubee.
5 comments:
so he thinks of you as his grandmother? or his vat of chicken fat?
i think, at various times, he's thought of me as both of those (and more).
you should slap him because that word gets bandied about a lot by portnoy in portnoy's complaint and he doesn't use it in an endearing way!
ok, after reading up on wikipedia, it seems the term has become more jocular since the writing of said book. carry on!
yes, scarny, i prefer this interpretation:
"While it can be used to refer to any female gentile, for many North American Jews, the 'shiksa' conforms to the classic all-American cheerleader stereotype, a White, Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) named 'Cathy' or 'Mary,' with long blonde hair and blue eyes."
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