Confessions of a Bookworm

If English grammar causes you to yawn uncontrollably, creating a dull throbbing sensation between your eyes, and an annoying buzzing in your head...then please skip this post! I promise, my feelings will NOT be hurt. I completely understand because I feel the exact same way about math. My husband is a math geek...and an engineer. When he begins explaining something or other about the depth and dimension ratios versus the quantum-tatum components of the exponentially imperceptible masses of square footage times the heat index of the PTU's...my eyes have glazed over by the second word and I begin to feel like someone has taken all of my intestines and tied them in knots...every 2 inches.

Sooooo...all math geeks, you may be dismissed. Catch y'all at the next post. *grin*

Okay, Starbucks in hand...I am ready for a little word adventure. Back to my new book...

The sentence is:
But New York was not the shtetl of their forebears, where everyone knew the habits of everyone else.

I have grabbed Webster's New World Dictionary. Shtetl is not listed. But look at this...I see another word that is interesting: shtick (n) [[Yiddish]] 1) a comic scene or gimmick 2) an attention-getting device

Hmmm...based on the second definition, this looks like a great mommy tool that I think I need. Wonder where I can get one?

Alright, back to shtetl. The internet...aha! Found something.

shtetl: (n) [Yiddish] (formerly) a Jewish village or small-town community in eastern Europe.

Forebears: (n) an ancestor

Oohh!! Okay, so this sentence could read: But New York was not like the small, close-knit communities of their Jewish ancestors, where everyone knew the habits of everyone else.

See? Now don't you feel smarter? I do. Now, I just have to figure out how to procure one of those nifty little shtick-thingys.