I've gone on record before as saying that I love it when media commentators- even gentiles; ESPECIALLY gentiles- bust out the Yiddish. The time during the 2001 NBA playoffs that Dan Patrick talked about "Iverson's touchas"- in reference to an injury to the Sixers star's tailbone, left me laughing for a long while. But when you get it wrong, it just plain doesn't work.
Yesterday on his 950 ESPN show, Mike Missanelli was telling an old story about how he worked selling perfume at a local mall, and had to give a "Spiel" while doing so. Except instead of saying "Spiel" he said "schmear." Actually, he said "schmear" the first three times, then used the correct"Spiel" then used "schmear" again.
(In case you're lost: "Spiel" means "a usually high-flown talk or speech, esp. for the purpose of luring people to a movie, a sale, etc.; pitch." "Schmear" is something that goes on a bagel.
Mikey Miss narrowly beats out the WIP caller, on Ike Reese's show, who questioned whether the doctor who diagnosed Kimmo Timonen's season-ending injury is an agenda-harboring Penguins fan.
Posted by Stephen Silver at May 9, 2008 05:02 PM