I was talking about the word ‘shemozzle’ and the word ‘carillon’ on today’s “Talk the Talk” podcast. I shall never look at Perth’s Carillon City shopping centre in quite the same way again.
I forgot to include a shoutout to Laverne and Shirley, which is the first place most of us ever heard the word ‘shemozzle’ (or more probably, ‘shlemazel’).
Also: my computer doesn’t seem to recognise ‘shemozzle’, which is too bad. And when I type ‘shlemazel’, it suggests ‘schlemiel’. These computers don’t know from Yiddish!
Listen here, or subscribe via iTunes.
20 March 2012 at 3:17 pm
such a goyish computer.
20 March 2012 at 3:50 pm
You have to spell it right!
Schlim – bad (in Yiddish and German_
Mazel – luck (as in Mazel Tov)
21 March 2012 at 12:06 am
You're right: when I spell it 'schlimazel', the computer raises no objections.
Of course, doing the Romanisation involves some degree of arbitrariness, since there are many ways to spell 'sh', and Hebrew doesn't do vowels at all.
I noticed the 'mazel tov' connection after the show! So many things we don't get to say.
🙁