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Archive for the ‘Thursday’s Top Ten’ Category

TEN TIPS THURSDAY

If you live in New York City, these word are already in your vocabulary!  However, sometimes even I forget there’s a world out there that doesn’t just toss out Yiddish words in their everyday conversations – BUT everyone can…it’s not like dropping French phrases which might make you seem pretentious – you know like with sangfroid!

With a little practice, these words will be rolling off your tongue in no time.

  1. Oy Vey –  Is an expression expressing exasperation, dismay or grief.
  2. Kvetsh –  Most often used in English to mean complain, but in Yiddish it literally means to squeeze or press like if your shoes were too tight.
  3. Maven –  An expert, often used sarcastically.
  4. Chutzpah –  In Yiddish this denotes arrogance and nervy presumption and is NOT a compliment.  In English, it is used to convey courage and confidence.
  5. Klutz –  Literally means block of wood so it is used when to describe a dense or clumsy person.
  6. Bubbe –  We all have one – a Grandmother.
  7. Schlep –  To drag something around, most likely something you don’t need or are doing unwillingly.
  8. Nosh –  To nibble a light snack – like what we eat when we play Mah Jongg.
  9. Kibbitz –  This doesn’t translate easily; the word is similar to Kibbutz, a collective community or it can refer to verbal joking.  The English innovation is giving unwanted advice about someone else’s game.
  10. Mazel-Tov – Literally good luck and used to convey good wishes for what just happened, not a hopeful wish for some future event.
Yiddish humor, Hebrew, Yiddish cartoon, common Yiddish phrases

Shmendrick

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Thanks to my  favorite guest contributor Gail, our Ten Tips Thursday is taking a break from the hundreds of uses for WD-40 and is all about CUCUMBERS.  As you will see, they are way more than just a salad ingredient!

 

household hints, shoe polisher, stainless steel cleaner, breath freshener, B vitamins

 

CUCUMBERS

  1. Cucumbers contains most of the vitamins you need every day, just one cucumber contains vitamin B1, B2, B3,B5, B6, Folic Acid, Vitamin C, Calcium, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Iron, Potassium and Zinc.
  2. Feeling tired in the afternoon, put down the caffeinated soda and pick up a cucumber.  Cucumbers are a good source of B vitamins and Carbohydrates that can provide that quick  pick-me-up that can last for hours.
  3. Tired of your bathroom mirror fogging up after a shower? Try rubbing a cucumber slice along the surface, it will eliminate the fog and provide a lovely spa-like fragrance.
  4. Are slugs and grubs ruining your planting beds?  Place a few cucumber slices in a small pie tin and your garden will be free of pests all season long.  The chemicals in the cucumber  react with the aluminum and give off a scent undetectable to humans but drive garden pests crazy and drive them from the area.
  5. Looking for a fast and easy way to minimize cellulite before going out or to the pool?  Try rubbing a slice or two of cucumber along your problem area for a few minutes, the phytochemicals in the cucumber cause the collagen in your skin to tighten, firming up the outer layer, reducing the visibility of the cellulite.  Works great on wrinkles too.
  6. Want to avoid a hangover or a terrible headache?  Eat a few slices of cucumber before going to bed and wake up refreshed and headache-free.  Cucumbers contain enough sugar, B vitamins, electrolytes to replenish essential nutrients the body lost, keeping everything in equilibrium avoiding both a headache and a hangover.
  7. Looking to fight off that afternoon or evening snacking binge?  Cucumbers have been used for centuries and often used by European trappers, traders and explorers for quick meals to stave off starvation.
  8. Realize you have an important meeting or interview and realize you don’t have enough time to polish your shoes?  Rub a freshly cut cucumber over the shoe, its chemicals will provide a quick and durable shine that not only looks great but will also repel water.
  9. Out of WD-40 and need to fix a squeaky hinge?  Take a cucumber slice and rub it along the squeaky hinge and voila the squeak is gone.
  10. Stressed out and don’t have time for a massage, facial or visit to the spa?  Cut up an entire cucumber and place it in a pot of boiling water, the chemicals and the nutrients of the cucumber will react with the boiling water and will be released in the steam, creating a soothing and relaxing aroma that has been shown to reduce stress in new mothers and college students taking final exams.
  11. Just finished a business lunch and realize that you don’t have gum or mints? Take a slice of cucumber and press it to the roof of your mouth for 30 seconds to eliminate bad breath, the phytochemicals  will kill the bacteria in your mouth causing bad breath.
  12. Looking for a a green way to clean your faucets, sinks or stainless steel?  Take a slice of cucumber and rub it on the surface you want to clean, not only will it remove years of tarnish and bring back the shine, it won’t leave streaks and won’t harm your fingers or fingernails while you clean.
  13. Using a pen and made a mistake?  Take the outside of a cucumber and slowly  rub to erase the pen writing; also works great on crayons and markers that the kids have used to decorate the walls.

Wow – What a little gem the cucumber is!!!

 

removes ink, mirror defogger, spa aroma, hangover cure, headache cure, afternoon snack,

The Almighty Cucumber

Check out the many uses for lemons – https://pbenjay.wordpress.com/2014/07/03/ten-tips-thursday-got-lemons/  AND – https://pbenjay.wordpress.com/2013/07/02/sooooo-when-life-gives-you-lemons/

 

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Yesterday I told my friend Susan that I was going to try to take some of the black marks left by God only knows who or what on my car as it is parked daily on a City street with WD-40. She laughed!  Well guess who has just gotten the last laugh? That’s right, me – I just came in from my own personal adventure with WD-40 It WORKED!!!! I started out cautiously (in hopes of success) on the spare tire wheel cover, it had some scrapes, scratches and black marks.  I sprayed on the WD-40 and rubbed the black marks off with a paper towel.  I used a little elbow grease but not much.  Success is not only sweet, it is also a great motivator-so I thought to try using my miracle can on the horrible key scratches that had so hideously marred the passenger side of my car.  When I saw the destruction wrought by some nasty hoodlum and a key, I was sick.  I can’t stand to see my car being nicked and dinged by opening cab doors, bumped by parked cars in the front and rear, and banged into by the sanitation workers as they extricate the trash from the front of our building.  I just can’t adopt a New York City state of mind about the car.  I was brought up in the rural but not country outskirts of a major Connecticut town and our cars were parked in our driveway.  When I was married and living in Connecticut we parked our cars in the garage so coming to New York City and finding out that I couldn’t afford to keep the car in a garage and that it would be parked in all vulnerability on the street was a difficult concept for me to wrap my head around.  And true to my worst fears, over the years, my little Toyota Corolla was binged, dinged, banged and bumped and ended up looking like most cars you see around the City.  A couple of years ago, we traded it in for a used but like new RAV 4.  Soon the paint on the rear bumper was nicked and chipped, then the right rear side panel received a real bang and has a dent there.  I tried not to look at the marks and vowed if I made enough money, I would have the dent fixed and the bumper repainted.  BUT THIS – THIS KEYING OF THE CAR was just heart-breaking.  And it did not take place in front our apartment building where the car is normally parked and is well in sight of our doormen who are on vigil 24 hours a day.  NO, this  evil act happened  when the car was parked down the street and my husband was in the hospital and a dear neighbor did the obligatory moving of the car for alternate side of the street parking (explanation of that particular NYC phenomena is for another blog).  YES I certainly did digress but sometimes the back story is more interesting than the main (but let’s hope not).  I rubbed WD-40 into all of the long and looping key scratches and they are almost invisible!!! Now I’m not dumb, so I know as good as WD-40 is , it can’t put “finish” back on the car where it has been scrape off BUT I do think that the basic oilliness of the product sort of filled in the marks. Maybe they’ll reappear when the car is washed and if they do, I know where we keep the can and I’ll just re-apply :))

  1. Lubricates the “fine tuner” screw on stringed instruments
  2. Makes rusty piano strings pliable again
  3. Lubricates crank motors on antique mechanical phonographs
  4. Removes rust from dog tags
  5. Lubricates hinges on beer steins
  6. Loosens stuck pocket knife blades
  7. Loosens stuck buttons on push button calculators
  8. Prevents noise on car window tracks
  9. Stops squeaks on car doors
  10. Removes black marks and light scratches on your car!!
  11. like duct tape in a can

    I LOVE WD-40

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Here’s TEN more reasons why you should keep a can of WD-40 on hand!  Last week a SITza wrote a comment and I asked her if I could “borrow” it!

WD-40 Is Like Duct Tape in a Can

  1. Removes ink from blue jeans
  2. Cleans the bottom of pots and pans
  3. Removes tomato stains from clothes
  4. Shines shower doors
  5. Removes gum from concrete floors
  6. Removes oxidation from aluminum storms and screens
  7. Spray on balcony to keep pigeons away
  8. Removes rust from steam irons
  9. Prevents rust on outside air conditioners
  10. Cleans and protects cowboy boots
    presents rust, cleans and protects,

    Like Duct Tape in a Can

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  1. Removes gum from floor mats.
  2. Prevents oxidation on battery connections
  3. Helps protect rubber trunk molding.
  4. Drives moisture from wet bicycle chains
  5. Removes gum from the bottom of shoes
  6. Shines golf clubs
  7. Lubricates sticky drawers
  8. Keeps wicker chairs from squeaking
  9. Stops squeaks on baby cribs
  10. Lubricates piano lid hinges
lubricates, stops squeaks, miracle can

WD-40

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  1. Keeps garden tools rust-free
  2. Removes crayon from carpet (be sure to test WD-40 on low visibility area of carpet before using)
  3. Removes adhesive price tags from shoe bottoms
  4. Removes paint from tile flooring (be sure to wipe floor clean after using WD-40)
  5. Removes mascara from tile floors and mirrors (be sure to wipe floor clean after using WD-40)
  6. Removes felt pen marks from floors (be sure to wipe floor clean after using WD-40)
  7. Cleans black streaks from hardwood floors (be sure to wipe floor clean after using WD-40)
  8. Removes marks from floors left by chair feet (be sure to wipe floor clean after using WD-40)
  9. Removes sticker residue from clothes (be sure to test WD-40 on low-visibility area of garment before using)
  10. Removes permanent ink from most items
    cleaning product, degreaser,

    WD-40

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