The Coffee House

[Gary A.]

Northern California. I am meeting up with another TFPer who lives in the foothills of the northen Sierra Nevada. Tonight we're staying in Placerville, in the Mother Lode country. Then up to Quincy. After Quincy we're headed to Ft. Bragg and the Skunk Train. Then some Sonoma wine tasting. BTW- we'll be wine tasting around Placerville and Ft. Bragg.

 

[limr]

Shaddup.

Oh, and I did bring work home - I just haven't decided to do it, yet.

Posting like it's the LB, Lenny. This should help:

Yeah, baby, postin' like a boss.

 

[limr]

Northern California. I am meeting up with another TFPer who lives in the foothills of the northen Sierra Nevada. Tonight we're staying in Placerville, in the Mother Lode country. Then up to Quincy. After Quincy we're headed to Ft. Bragg and the Skunk Train. Then some Sonoma wine tasting. BTW- we'll be wine tasting around Placerville and Ft. Bragg.

We will be demanding pictures, you know

 

[Gary A.]

Change in travel plans. We have decided to hit the southern end of the Mother Lode country and work our way through the foothills and mountains to Placerville. We'll be following the Stanislaus River, through the Gold Country and Mark Twain, including Angels Camp, San Andreas, up to Murphy's, Sutter Creek, El Dorado, et al.

 

[limr]

Okay, time for a little informal linguistic research: Who knows what a shmear is?

 

[snowbear]

It sounds like "smear" but I'm guessing it means something like "a little." I believe it's Yiddish.
And, no, I haven't looked it up . . . yet.

 

[snowbear]

OK - Wikipedia to the rescue.
Not Yiddish but "Germanic." smear is closer to the meaning than "a little."

I'm zero and two.

 

[Gary A.]

A shmeer of cream cheese on my locs and bagles?

 

[snowbear]

My turn: Zygodactyl.

 

[limr]

A shmeer of cream cheese on my locs and bagles?

Yes!! Now my next question: is that something you hear in LA or do you know it from exposure to NY-isms?

I'm curious about how regional this usage is.

*lox

 

[KenC]

and bagels

Oh, these West Coast Types [shakes head]

 

[Gary A.]

The is a large Jewish population in LA. Finally arrive in Placerville after having a beer in Drytown.

 

[vintagesnaps]

I know what a schmear is, can't say I necessarily use the term. There are a number of words I used to hear growing up that I thought were German but later found out were apparently Yiddish. Don't ask me how my German-Irish-English & whatnot relatives picked it up considering there isn't a particularly large population where I'm from that would have spoken Yiddish.

However I am on the outskirts of a metropolitan area with a rather smallish Jewish population and I could find some kosher food if I took a bit of a drive (I know where to go, it's just not real close).

You know, they all came out of the Depression and gadzooks we all heard about it enough so I guess the languages blended into one big schmear.

 

[vintagesnaps]

Zygo-what?? let's see, it was a zebra striped dinosaur. No wiki anything, I just made up my answer/wild guess.

 

[limr]

My turn: Zygodactyl.

Something about fingers. A polydactyl is having extra toes/fingers. Zygodactyl...hmmm...unformed or underdeveloped fingers or toes?