§ 255 Improvements in the Language
The infusion of Russian and Polish stocks into New York has been responsible for some curious additions to the language of the Manhattan Cockney. Most of us are familiar with the story of the small East-Side boy who told his father that what he liked best about the arithmetic he studied at school was Gozinta.
“What do you mean, Gozinta?” asked his parent.
“Why, 2 gozinta 4, 4 gozinta 8, 8 gozinta 16.”
Of somewhat more recent coinage is the one which recites how a teacher asked if any member of her class knew the meaning of the word “Stoic.”
Up rose a small second-generation American from Rivington Street.
“Sure, teacher, I know what is a stoic,” he said.
“Well then, Sidney, suppose you tell us what a stoic is.”
“A stoic is the boid wot brings the babies.”
But of all such yarns I believe I like best the tale of the transplanted Pole who had made a fortune by building cheap apartment-houses. He had just completed the erection of a flat-building near Riverside Drive, whereas theretofore all his operations had been confined to the more crowded down-town districts. A friend said to him:
“Meyer, that’s a mighty nice-looking flat-building you’ve just put up. Have you got a name for it yet?”
“Soitinly,” said the capitalist. “I’ve decided I should call it the Cloister Apartments.”
“Strikes me as a rather curious name. Why call it that?”
“Because,” said Meyer, “it’s cloister the subway, it’s cloister Central Park and its cloister the river.”