One thing that always brings a smile to my face is when I hear non-Jews use Yiddish words in a colloquial expression. Nana and I talked about this a few times.
Common ones included shtick and tchotchke. Another great one is Chutzpah of which I will now give an example.
On Sunday, as a peace offering, the kids and I stopped by the Super Bowl party which I did not intend to attend.
The youngest child of the family has been dating a guy for about 3 years. I met him 1.5 years ago for 20 minutes...and liked him.
Every time I've seen the girl (or her parents) since then I've asked, "so, what's going on? It's been 3 years already!"
When I saw them around Hannukah time I said to her father, "you know, if you don't sit this boy down and ask his intentions, I'm going to have to do it myself."
I saw them at Nana's shiva and asked again. No progress. "Ok, I've got to do it."
So, when I saw him at the party on Sunday, I had no choice. My credibility was on the line even though it could be argued...I had no business whatsoever injecting myself into the conversation.
He knew what was coming. I turned to him and said, "hey, I need some help moving the car seats."
He accompanied me outside and we had the man-to-man chat I had intended. It was good practice for the day when I need it for Calanit.
Now, as for what happened...well, that's between him and me.
I daresay this is a good definition of chutzpah.
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