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Stump
Me Questions Answered in November 2000
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Q.: We are all wondering what is the derivation of the very nasty word, "kike"?
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Marcia G.
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A.: OK, I asked a rabbi who gave me the following answer. He says he's
pretty sure this is where it came from.
"Keikl" (pronounced KY-kle) is yiddish word meaning "circle." Jewish immigrants would sign
their papers at Ellis Island with a Keikl or a Keikleh (a "little circle"), since they were unwilling
to make an "X." Once they started working as storekeepers or peddlers, they continued to use keikls instead
of X's to sign account books and other documents. So Jews became known to Ellis Island
immigration inspectors, and others throughout the country, as
"keikl men" or "kikes."
I know, I expected something a little more, too.
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Q.: Why do you
have to pee so much when you drink beer?
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Kelly L.
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A.: Did you go to
college with me? This sounds a lot like one of the questions
everyone used to ask me at bars.
Besides drinking the extra liquid, alcohol
is the reason. Alcohol is a diuretic, which actively flushes the
fluids out of your body. By the way, a hangover is a result of
the dehydration from going to the bathroom all the time. So to
prevent hangovers, and still be able to have another beer, drink
a glass of water every so often.
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Q.: What is the origin of the childhood playground song/dance titled "Ring
Around The Rosy."
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Mike D.
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A.: Well, it's
about time someone from my office stepped up to the challenge.
Too bad I found the answer in less than an hour. I
know you're waiting for me to say that's it's about the Black
Plague of the 1600's. Well, the answer really is...nobody knows
for sure. The Plague is the most widely accepted origin of the song,
with good reason. Most scholars explain the song this way:
Ring around the rosy - rosy refers
to the rose-colored rash people developed.
A pocket full
of posies - posies were herbs used to sweeten the air from
the smell of death.
Atchoo, atchoo - these were the
original words to the song, having been traced as far back as the 1800's.
We
all fall down - I don't think I need to explain this one, do
I?
Now for the other side of the argument.
There are some scholars who disagree with the Plague reference
simply because there are a great deal of records detailing how
the Plague started, how it spread, what the symptoms were, how
it disappeared, how many people died, and the way that people
lived. Yet it wasn't until the 1800's, almost two centuries
after the Plague, that the first reference of the song appeared.
OK, who's next?
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