The New Colossus

July 22, 2016July 15, 2024 ~ Old Jewish Lady

The New Colossus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

–Emma Lazarus

Colossus of Rhodes image {{PD-old-70}}

What’s Wrong With This Picture?

July 12, 2016July 12, 2016 ~ Old Jewish Lady

Below is a century-old photo taken at the English seashore. My husband is the smiling baby front and center. But there is something very wrong here. Can you see what it is? (Scroll down to read the answer.)

Answer: There are no men in the photo, only women and children. Their smiling faces belie what is really going on: The men were away serving in World War I.

No News Is True News

July 6, 2016 ~ Old Jewish Lady

For over a century, Russia had two major newspapers, Pravda and Izvestia. In Russian, “pravda” means “truth” and “izvestia” means “news.” Those sound like good names for newspapers. But they were all propaganda. A famous Russian saying, evoking these pillars of journalism, can be translated to something like this: “There’s no truth in The News, and no news in The Truth.”

Ain’t that the truth?

Coney Island

June 29, 2016May 5, 2019 ~ Old Jewish Lady

I remember in the 1930s going to Coney Island in the summer. The subway ride was a nickel. Teenage boys would buy Eskimo Pies and ices and sell them on the beach out of big ice chests. They would go along the water’s edge where people bought ice cream. But the boys were competing with vendors who had stands on the boardwalk so the cops were forever chasing them away. The boys would run off, but when the coast was clear(!) they came back to sell more ice cream.

Poor Old England

June 25, 2016June 26, 2016 ~ Old Jewish Lady

My father-in-law, Solomon, born in Whitechapel in 1887, was noted for singing an endless number of English music hall songs. One in particular springs to mind. Please click the player below to hear Solly’s rendition of Poor Old England (1907), lyrics provided.

Poor old England, isn’t it a picture? Everything you see you must agree,
The carpet on the stairs, the table and the chairs are made in Germany.
When I go up into me bedroom, lying in a tiny cot
Is a little baby boy, mother’s pride and only joy,
That’s the only little thing that England’s got.

How My Husband Got His Name

June 17, 2016June 26, 2016 ~ Old Jewish Lady

A boy called "Wolf" — A boy called “Wolf”

Velvel (his Yiddish name), pictured above, was born in London in 1914. When his parents went to record his birth, they told the registrar his name was “Wolf,” the English for Velvel. The well-meaning bureaucrat advised, “He’s going to be a nice English boy. You don’t want to call him ‘Wolf’. Why not call him Walter?” And that is how my husband got his name.

Mind, you, Wolf is a perfectly good English name. Remember the writer Wolf Mankowitz who wrote “A Kid for Two Farthings?” It was made into a film with Celia Johnson and Diana Dors.

So there’s nothing wrong with a kid called Wolf.

The Weaker Sex?

June 11, 2016June 13, 2016 ~ Old Jewish Lady

Pictured above are my in-laws from England, Solomon (“Solly”) and Annie. Solly was born in London in 1887. He possessed an inexhaustible repertory of English music hall songs, developed over decades of dedicated practice. He would sing at the drop of a hat, to Annie’s dismay. In 1955, my husband recorded his dad. I am providing just one example here among dozens of ditties. The recording is a song called “The Weaker Sex”. Click the player below to hear him, lyrics provided…

By the wink of her eye she can capture your body and soul.
By the wave of her tongue she can drive you up the pole.
She can rush a man, crush a man whenever he goes too far.
Oh, the weaker sex are wonderful strong they are.

When Harry Met Fanny

April 9, 2016April 9, 2016 ~ Old Jewish Lady

Harry, Fanny, Fanny, and Harry (left to right)

Pictured in the photo are two couples both named Harry and Fanny. On the left are my cousins from Providence, and on the right are my parents. At one time, the name Fanny was very popular for girls. You may remember the comedienne Fanny Brice who was the subject of the musical and movie Funny Girl. I must have had at least six relatives named Fanny. It may have a lot of meanings and origins in names including Frances. But “Fanny” has fallen somewhat out of favor among English speakers. Click the player below to hear the Yiddish meaning of my mother’s name, “Fanny.”

Books: Detective Stories and Authors

April 9, 2016 ~ Old Jewish Lady

Detective Stories and Authors

This is one of my favorite genres. I am taking the liberty of providing a list (link above) that I compiled in 2005 of authors (left-hand column) and detectives (middle column), with brief descriptions of the detective and his or her milieu. I put an asterisk next to the authors I particularly enjoyed. I also put an asterisk next to names such as Dorothy Sayers, Margery Allingham, Agatha Christie (forgive!) and Ngaio Marsh because they represent early 1930s and 1940s English women mystery writers. So the asterisk system is somewhat flawed. However, if you see two asterisks, those are the authors whose books I particularly enjoyed. For instance the character Hamish McBeth (M.C. Beaton), and the Joan Hess series about Arly Hanks in the small town of Maggody, Ark. Arthur Upfield’s Australian Aborigine detective series was great also.

If I knew of movies or TV series, I indicated that in some notes. I did catch a mistake–and you will see a hand-written note: Donald Westlake, and not Carl Haissen, wrote the Archy McNally stories about an investigator living with his parents in Palm Beach, Fla.

Josephine Tey was inexplicably omitted from the list. The Daughter of Time is one of my favorite books..

I am sure I have forgotten to put asterisks on some of the books that I have loved, but I never fool myself into thinking that my taste in literature (or anything else for that matter) will correspond to anyone else’s. If I can lead you to a fun read or two, then the list is worth it. And of course, it needs updating with the contemporary detective stories of the last decade and beyond, such as the anticipated title below.