Did you see any of Elena Kagan’s confirmation hearing? Senator Lindsey Graham asked Kagan where she was on Christmas to which she replied:
You know, like all Jews, I was probably at a Chinese restaurant.
I’m sure I wasn’t the only Jewish father to forward that video to his child. She’ll still probably never forgive me for not having a Christmas Tree while she was growing up.
If Senator Graham read this blog more frequently… OK, at all. If he read it at all he would have already known where Elena Kagan was!
Meanwhile there must be something in the air because Ann Nyberg (it’s Swedish, not Jewish) came to dinner with her own Jewish question.
“What does “kina hurra” mean?”
Kina hurra is a Yiddish expression I’ve heard and used all my life. I knew how to use it functionally, but didn’t know the exact dictionary definition. Like so many idiomatic phrases its meaning isn’t the sum of its component words.
You might say, “What a beautiful baby, kina hurra.” Or, if your team was winning big you wouldn’t say they’ve got the game in the bag because, “That might give them a kina hurra.”
Ann suggested I call my folks. They are, after all, members of the Yiddish Club at the condo.
The conversation wasn’t very satisfying because they too didn’t know the meaning either, but they’d check. Five minutes later they were back on the line!
Here’s their explanation as recorded live at the dinner table.
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