The Kvetch Thread

Roberta, what is YOUR definition of "kvetching"?

I thought it was only done when there was card playing.

ha, i came to kvetch in the original kvetch thread about reporting spam and getting the "Topic Not Found" message (which just means that the mods deleted it before i could report), and what did find, the topic was nowhere to be found

off to find something else that's got my dander up

We can delete threads? Who knew?

When I lived in New York, I used to kvetch about the winters..............low light levels, cold, have to bundle up, etc. Now that I am in Florida, a "paradise", so they say, I am constantly kvetching about the summers..........It's like living in a steam bath, and my hair turns to Brillo.Some paradise!!!

Being as it's July, I would like to kvetch about the heat.
We continue to have day after day of 100 + temperatures, just miserable, horribly miserable, insufferable, sweltering, strength sapping, blazing, inescapable heat.

I hope you don't delete this thread before January, I'd like to come back and kvetch about the cold.

You might be thinking of "kibbitzing."

There is a brief window where one can delete posts and threads after they have been posted. Not sure the given time frame but it's in terms of a couple of minutes or less and/or if no one responds to the thread prior to the deletion.

Kvetching is a major league sport. Of course, you are a franchise player Roberta for a2k.

a2k should be paying you $15 million a year for your talents! Or you could be selling season tickets to your kvetching playoffs every season.

One might have to be a New Yorker or Jewish ("kvetch" is a Yiddish word) to understand the nuance of "kvetch." First, let me explain the nuance of "Schlep," in the way of analogy. When the weatherman/lady on a New York tv/radio station says, "Possible rain this afternoon; schlep the umbrella." He/she is not just saying, "Possible rain this afternoon; bring the umbrella." He/she is saying, "Possible rain this afternoon; it would behoove you to "drag" the umbrella with you all day, even though you might find it annoying, so be annoyed and "drag" the umbrella with you, it's for your own good."

Now "kvetch" doesn't just mean "to complain." It means to complain about many things. Many of those things being possibly inconsequential to others, if they had the same problem. In other words, if one arrives at work, and then starts with a litany of kvetching, they might be telling co-workers (for example), "I woke up with a headache, then my shower was not hot enough, then the subway was delayed, then there was no milk for my coffee, then I ran into the person I can't stand, then someone let the door close in my face, then..." Now, many believe that kvetching is very therapeutic, even though another person might say to the kvetcher, "Stop kvetching, ALREADY!"

I believe "kvetching" and "schlepping," both being Yiddishisms that some long time New Yorkers (possibly the Hollywood set also) have adopted, as sort of a Jewish version of humility, meaning the world is not giving me an existence that is not without its problems, so since I am sufferering, you should commiserate with me.

Again in my own opinion, kvetching is the antithesis of the British "keep a stiff upper lip." Or, the American version of "don't show one's emotions on one's sleeve." Many ethnic New Yorkers have a style of kvetching that relates to their experiences in the world they lived in.

I believe that kvetchers have the advantage of having kvetching as the proverbial "safety valve" to let off steam, rather than get sick over many little stressors adding up, staying in the unconscious, and one's body having some physical symptoms. To kvetch is to be mindful, in my opinion, to a world that does not give most of us humans a charmed existence.

Actually, "to kvetch" is Yinglish.
Kvetshn (German: quetschen), as a Yiddish word, means 'to press", "to squeeze', "to pinch" ( Weinstein, Uriel, Modern English-Yiddish, Yiddish-English Dictionary).
Alexander Harkavy (Yiddish English-Hebrew Dictionary) mentions additionally the meaning of "sitting on the toilet and pressing" - like someone who forgot to eat floymen ...

Glad to see you here as always laughed at local Yiddishisms - did you know that Lachs (aka salmon) eggs are known around my town as "lox" (sic)?! - figuring they sound like German spoken by a very drunk person, or one who simply, absolutely, and categorically refuses to learn the godawful German grammar!

Specifically on Roberta's latest contribution to this forum, I also always thought the term in the thread title comes from Quatsch (= nonsense), as in:
Was für ein Quatsch!
Since I have no Hebrew (or local variant) must take your dictionary's word - but can't help wondering if there's some connection..... please advise. Thanks.

That's not borne out by any experimental data on people subjected to unspeakable treatment - prisoners of war, other torture victims as in childhood sexual abuse, or otherwise victims of PTSD etc. That's why the "unconscious" hypothesis of "repression" made Freudian theory into the laughingstock it is today.

I always feel better after a good kvetch. It may be a bonding thing above all else though -- I'm relieved to find someone who can kvetch creatively and humorously and who will appreciate kvetching in turn.

I've told this story before but a friend of mine is deaf and Jewish, he was born deaf and didn't have that much to do with his family really, went to deaf institutes etc. But he LOOKS very Jewish and has some Jewish mannerisms etc. After I'd spent some time with him he said something like, "Man, you complain a lot!" I had a who me?? moment, then realized I was relating to him as if he was culturally Jewish, but he's not. He wasn't into the kvetching.

I usually do a little cultural screen before I launch but he confused the signal.

I do know non-Jewish kvetchers though, a friend of mine is a southern (West Virginian) Baptist or something and can kvetch with the best of 'em.

"Quatsch" origins as a onomatopoeia (similar to Knatsch, Matsch, Patsch to a similar sound.

You're probably right about the bonding thing. In some groups, you can bond just by standing around and hating the same thing as everyone else. This is a little beyond the normal kvetch.

My uncle Stan ley would always use "Kvetch and krechtz' rtogether. They compounded the spirit of the JEwish spirit of one who magnifies everything into mountainous obstacles' Kvetchers (male varianst) are slightly different in style fro their female counterparts , the kvetcherkeh.
To them its Tisha Bov every day. OYYYYYY

Texas kvetches are liberally sprinkled with "y'alls" and "lazier'n my old hound's crop of fleas."

speaking of phones - what's with these companies (banks etc) where you have to enter your phone number or credit card number, punch a bunch more numbers to get through the system, sit on hold for a bit (music or not), and then when you get someone, they ask you for all the information you just punched in? Why bother asking for all that if they're just going to ask you again??????

Or you get disconnected!