Word: ma
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Marston," the lady inquires of the butler, "has he been getting foxed often?" "Oh, no, ma'am! He has been dipping rather deep, perhaps." Exchanges like this, from the pages of Georgette Heyer's decorous novels, often fox the uninitiated reader...
...although so far removed in time and place, every last bobbin in our great, sewing-ma-chine-like society makes St. Simparootieville's birthday a time of general rejoicing. Little bits of tissue and cardboard are handed over to the central government only to be redistributed to other people. Little bits of meat ball are flung in the air at precisely 11 a.m. There is universal singing...
Everyone does contribute to an exacerbating and profound disharmony; but everyone is such a nut that their trials seem unbelievably aboard. These few days could be taken as a Yiddish parody of No Eric and Jack or The submission: It is Simckes, not Jonesco's. Ma who abouts at her husband, "Zelo! Did I say you could have strawberries? I said farina and you know it. Oh, I see you've disobeyed me and taken off your pants...
...Shemanskys: fortified with faith in ritual and his own deep warmth, Gleich temporarily stuns the Shemanskys into their tradition: to mourn, to rend their clothes, to talk compassionately of the dead idiot child. The Shemanskys, however, soon evict Gleich (who had moved in with Mrs. Charpolsky) and, as Ma dictates, do not mourn for Zadie (the Shemansky grandfather and financial supporter who died the next week). Zadie lived downstairs too, but nobody visited...
Simckes creates some fine comic scenes, the funnist of them in a scatalogical vein. Who can forget-Mrs. Charpolsky stuffing the toilet to block off the cold draught and hanging desperately over the bowl in her effort to remain untouched by the seat? Or Ma Shemansky's shame and indignation when she hears Fievet declare, not the expected I have to make pippy or trickle or ich darj ghen pishen, but the treasonable, "I want to urinate...