FROM THE IT-TAKES-ONE-TO-KNOW-ONE DEPARTMENT . . . David Giacalone knows something about Italian hand gestures, and he has an opinion about Antonin Scalia's gesture to the press after Sunday Mass. Scalia, says Giacalone, acted like a "tasteless gumbah."
We all know what "tasteless" means, but what's a "gumbah"? Does it foreclose the possibility that Scalia's gesture makes him "way cool"?
Whatever the answer, this much is clear: Justice Scalia is still perfectly-suited for reality TV.
Evan, I should have used the more "popular" spelling of "gumbah", which is "goombah." I've corrected the word at my website to avoid this confusion. Here's how The American Heritage Dictionary defines it::
Here's what Wikipedia says on the topic Goombah:
At About.com, a section on Soprano-Speak explains the transliteration issue with Southern-Italian words such as "goombah", "agita", and "skeevy": "All of them derive from southern Italian dialect, which tends to make the c a g, and vice versa. Likewise, p tends to become a b and d transmutes into a t sound, and dropping the last letter is very Neapolitan. So goombah linguistically mutates from compare, agita, which means "acid indigestion," originally was spelled acidità , and skeevy comes from schifare, to disgust."
As for your headline: I'm sure you're not suggesting that it takes one tasteless goombah to know one.
Posted by: David Giacalone | March 28, 2006 at 10:04 AM
David: You are correct about the headline. To the extent you are a goombah, I'm certain you are a tasteful one.
Posted by: Evan | March 28, 2006 at 08:16 PM
Yeah, I had to weigh in on Antonin a couple of times this past year and both are linked here:
http://christopher-king.blogspot.com/2006/03/antonin-scalia-proves-that-judicial.html
Now as to Italians in general, that's another story as I noted on Daily Kos:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/4/3/1318/09136
Peace.
Posted by: christopher king | April 04, 2006 at 09:11 PM