Shmuck and Cold War
My husband is learning Russian really fast. We usually share our day stories over dinner, relaxing and getting reconnected every evening. He interjects Russian words here and there and the number of words he knows grows daily. This time, though, this innocent exchange sparked a highly-charged exchange between us that early Wednesday evening. “He is such a shmuck !” My husband put a piece of pork into his mouth and I had to wait to hear the story. “Oh, honey, I didn’t know you knew this word! Is he fat?” “No, why? He is not fat at all, but he is disgusting. Do you know him?” “No, I do not. Why disgusting? Ukranians like it.” “ Ukranians ? What is here to like? So you do know him.” “Ukranians like fat. They call it SALO .” “Salo? Never heard of it! But what can Ukranians know about schmuck?” “Everything.They eat it.” “They eat shmuck? How nasty!” “They do not think so. Even we Russians eat it. I think we adopted it from Ukrainians.” “Adopted what?” “The word