AROUND THE BLOCK
News with a Twist
UFC 195: Michael McDonald vs. Masanori Kanehara
Ethnicity/Pronunciation of Challenger Kanehara in Dispute
It was a relatively slow day today at Around The Block. Despite posting two News with a Twist reports, this reporter spent much of the day watching the NFL on Fox (go Niners???)
Since I watched the games live, I couldn't fast forward through the commercials. While I paid little to no attention to most of the spots, there was one, a Fox promo for UFC 195, that caught my eye, but more importantly, my ear.
Now, let me preface this by saying I have no idea what UFC is, except what I saw in the spots, which looked like two out-of-control guys in a ring beating the s**t out of each other (this is a family blog) in any way possible, hands, feet, whatever else, I cannot say, with no rules, supervision or referee. Not my kind of entertainment; the spot ran many, many times throughout the Fox NFL coverage with precious little acknowledgement on my part.
Until, in the last promo, when for some reason, I actually listened to the announcer voice-over. It seems that the fight is about someone named Michael McDonald "setting his sights" on someone named Masanori Kanehara.
As many of you know, I've lived in and traveled to, Japan for over 25 years. I know a Japanese name and most often a face when I hear/see it. And as many others are aware, I know more than a few Yiddish expressions. Masanori Kanehara is clearly Japanese.
But in this case something seemed off.
While Kanehara should be pronounced: Kan-Ā-Hara, the overheated voice-over guy pronounced it kanehore (or keineinehora, keyn ayin hara, kaynahara, kein ayin hara - make no mistake Yiddish is a difficult language to write in English), a Yiddish expression.
This led me to wonder, despite his looks and obvious Japanese spelling of his name, could Masanori actually be a closeted Japanese Jew, of which there are none? Or, since kanehore literally means, "to ward off the evil eye or bad luck in general", did the overheated voice-over announcer, in using that pronunciation, actually try to throw the fight in Kanehara's favor through some Yiddish curse?
Digging deeper into this, I discovered that the over-heated voice-over announcer's name is Sheldon Shmolsky, so it is very possible, in his own way, Shmolsky, a non-closeted American Jew, was trying to throw the fight by protecting Kanehara with this Yiddish expression.
Not knowing what to do next, I turned to the only person I know who could help me sort this out, Donald J. Trump.
Trump, becoming more and more Yiddish fluent told me,"Oy veh, I know Shmolsky. I used him once for one of my pageants. He's little pisher and a momzer rolled into one. What he's doing now is completely ongepotchket". Trump went on to say, Shmolsky is a gonif and "if I were you, I'd use some saykehl and keep your gelt in your pocket.
Trump closed our talk by musing, "Maybe I should buy the UFC instead of just potchkaing around with this president thing."
As I have now spent more time with UFC than I ever imagined I could, I will never know how this turns out and if Shmolsky's invoking a keineinehora on Kanehara will allow us to kvell over his victory. So all I can say to all involved, Trump, McDonald, Shmolsky and most of all Kanehara, "Gay Ga Zinta Hate"!
Since I watched the games live, I couldn't fast forward through the commercials. While I paid little to no attention to most of the spots, there was one, a Fox promo for UFC 195, that caught my eye, but more importantly, my ear.
Now, let me preface this by saying I have no idea what UFC is, except what I saw in the spots, which looked like two out-of-control guys in a ring beating the s**t out of each other (this is a family blog) in any way possible, hands, feet, whatever else, I cannot say, with no rules, supervision or referee. Not my kind of entertainment; the spot ran many, many times throughout the Fox NFL coverage with precious little acknowledgement on my part.
Until, in the last promo, when for some reason, I actually listened to the announcer voice-over. It seems that the fight is about someone named Michael McDonald "setting his sights" on someone named Masanori Kanehara.
As many of you know, I've lived in and traveled to, Japan for over 25 years. I know a Japanese name and most often a face when I hear/see it. And as many others are aware, I know more than a few Yiddish expressions. Masanori Kanehara is clearly Japanese.
But in this case something seemed off.
While Kanehara should be pronounced: Kan-Ā-Hara, the overheated voice-over guy pronounced it kanehore (or keineinehora, keyn ayin hara, kaynahara, kein ayin hara - make no mistake Yiddish is a difficult language to write in English), a Yiddish expression.
This led me to wonder, despite his looks and obvious Japanese spelling of his name, could Masanori actually be a closeted Japanese Jew, of which there are none? Or, since kanehore literally means, "to ward off the evil eye or bad luck in general", did the overheated voice-over announcer, in using that pronunciation, actually try to throw the fight in Kanehara's favor through some Yiddish curse?
Digging deeper into this, I discovered that the over-heated voice-over announcer's name is Sheldon Shmolsky, so it is very possible, in his own way, Shmolsky, a non-closeted American Jew, was trying to throw the fight by protecting Kanehara with this Yiddish expression.
Not knowing what to do next, I turned to the only person I know who could help me sort this out, Donald J. Trump.
Trump, becoming more and more Yiddish fluent told me,"Oy veh, I know Shmolsky. I used him once for one of my pageants. He's little pisher and a momzer rolled into one. What he's doing now is completely ongepotchket". Trump went on to say, Shmolsky is a gonif and "if I were you, I'd use some saykehl and keep your gelt in your pocket.
Trump closed our talk by musing, "Maybe I should buy the UFC instead of just potchkaing around with this president thing."
As I have now spent more time with UFC than I ever imagined I could, I will never know how this turns out and if Shmolsky's invoking a keineinehora on Kanehara will allow us to kvell over his victory. So all I can say to all involved, Trump, McDonald, Shmolsky and most of all Kanehara, "Gay Ga Zinta Hate"!
No comments:
Post a Comment