SteveSilver.net

A Seminal Candidate

See any of the above Hebrew logo during the presidential campaign? According to Asparagirl, the design (distributed on T-shirts and buttons by a group called Jews For John Kerry) has another, especially embarrassing meaning:

It seems like they transliterated Kerry as קרי (or qof-resh-yud if you read it right-to-left), which is an actual Hebrew word with an unfortunate meaning: "seminal emission". Oops.

Oops is right. A friend of mine also noticed the double-meaning, but wore the button anyway:

Yeah, I had one of those buttons, and it always made me laugh when I thought about what the Hebrew actually meant. Note that the root "Bush" in Hebrew means "shame". So I would go around saying "The candidates' names are appropriate. If Bush wins, I'm going to be ashamed. If Kerry wins..."

Only on the Upper West Side, my friends, only on the Upper West Side.

Posted by Stephen Silver at November 15, 2004 06:00 PM