Monday, March 29, 2010

Yiddish Word

THE ESSENCE OF CHUTZPAH...

Chutzpah is a Yiddish word meaning gall, brazen nerve, effrontery, sheer guts plus arrogance; Leo Rosten writes, "no other word, and no other language," can do it justice."

This example is better than 1,000 words. Read the story below and you will understand.

A little old lady sold pretzels on a street corner for 25 cents each.

Every day a young man would leave his office building at lunch time, and as he passed the pretzel stand, he would leave her a quarter, but never take a pretzel.

This went on for more than 3 years. The two of them never spoke. One day, as the young man passed the old lady's stand and left his quarter as usual, the pretzel lady spoke to him. Without blinking an eye she said:

"They're 35 cents now."


12 comments:

Anonymous said...

I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Poor guy probably thought he was doing the lady a favor by just leaving a quarter and not taking a pretzel. That way she would get 50 cents for the same pretzel if someone else bought it.

DeniseinVA said...

Wonderful! Good morning Patty. Have a great week.

Arkansas Patti said...

That definitely covers the meaning. Tooo funny.

Mental P Mama said...

It is a great word! I love her;)

Anonymous said...

Street Bank may be in the eyes of guy

Margaret Cloud said...

She must of been Jewish, just kidding.

Clytie said...

Now THAT's CHUTZPAH!

nituscorner said...

ooopsss so poor lady or poor man ?????

Femin Susan said...

That's great!

Kavita Saharia said...

She was just helping him do the noble job ...lol.Nice one Patty.

Renie Burghardt said...

Oh, yeah, that pretzel lady definately had chutzpah!

Back to DWS!

Renie

Beth Niquette said...

(grin) I have some Jewish friends--they are such wonderful people.

They can always sniff out a sale, or get the best deal on anything...I don't know how they do it. It is a gift!

I love this story. I'm going to send it to one of my best buds, who's Jewish. (Grin)

She will LOVE this!