Re: HUMOUR: Pronounce This...

On Wed, 18 Sep 2002 17:25, Steg Belsky wrote:
> On Wed, 18 Sep 2002 00:33:36 -0400 Roger Mills <romilly@...> writes:
> > I believe it's _schlemiehl_ that's defined as:  a person who kills
> > his
> > parents, then begs the court to have mercy on a poor orphan.
>
> -
>
> Sounds more like a _schmuck_ to me :-P .
> I've always heard it explained something like a _schlemiel_ is someone
> who spills their soup.  A _schlemazel_ is who the _schlemiel_ spills
> their soup on.
Just googled it, and that's the definition, along with the heartwarming
comment from www.maslow.org/schlemiel.html :

Habitual bungler or dolt. A stupid individual.

 What he means here is that those we consider evil simply lack common sense.
They are retarded and should be educated properly rather than hated. They
don't know any better than to destroy rather than create, etc.

And from this site:
http://www2.dokkyo.ac.jp/~esemi006/schlml1.htm

Q: What is the schlemiel?

A: That is a very good question. Let me quote Ruth R. Wisse from her The
Schlemiel as Modern Hero. She defines the schlemiel and the schlimazel (i.e.
schlimmazzel) as follows:

The American distinction between the schlemiel and the schlimazel, summarized
in the rule of thumb that says the former spills the soup, the latter is the
one into whose lap it falls, provides a helpful basis for definition. The
schlemiel is the active disseminator of bad luck, and the schlimazel its
passive victim. Or, more sharply defined, the schlimazel happens upon
mischance, he has a penchant for lucklessness, but the unhappy circumstances
remain outside him, and always suggest the slapstick quality of surprise. The
schlemiel's misfortune is his character. It is not accidental, but essential.
Whereas comedy involving the schlimazel tends to be situational, the
schlemiel's comedy is existential, deriving from his very nature in its
confrontation with reality.


Schlimazel appears to be compounded from |schli-| ? and |mazel| - fortune.

Anyone got characters like that in their conworlds?  Any words dealing with
those self-same concepts?

Wesley Parish

>
>
> -Stephen (Steg), brother of the Left-Handed Lithuanian
>  "aru."
--
Mau e ki, "He aha te mea nui?"
You ask, "What is the most important thing?"
Maku e ki, "He tangata, he tangata, he tangata."
I reply, "It is people, it is people, it is people."

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