Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Yiddish 101.

If you grew up as I did (god forbid, I wouldn't wish that on anyone) you grew up hearing a variety of Yiddish. And one of the phrases you might have heard more than any other was actually just a fragment of a phrase. My father would admonish: "As di bubbe..." And then his voice would trail off.

Today, no one knows the full phrase or, more important the wisdom behind it. 

The full phrase is: "As di bubbe volt gehat beytsim volt zi gevain mayn zaidah." 

Which means, if your Yiddish is a bit rusty, "If my grandmother had balls, she'd be my grandfather."

My point is kind of simple.

Don't make predictions or plans based on spurious assumptions.

1 comment:

Tore Claesson said...

my wife's got four balls. she stole mine. she's israeli after all.