tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138458.post5154906433170243951..comments2024-02-23T13:15:42.158+13:00Comments on Dissecting Leftism: JRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00829082699850674281noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138458.post-43835495475222008852008-01-06T18:26:00.000+13:002008-01-06T18:26:00.000+13:00The German word for ornament is "Schmuck." I won't...The German word for ornament is "Schmuck." I won't argue with Adorno's self assessment.Josephhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04720409839023747889noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138458.post-42140153984543526582007-12-31T17:49:00.000+13:002007-12-31T17:49:00.000+13:00A basic knowledge of German therefore makes Ashken...<I>A basic knowledge of German therefore makes Ashkenazi names amusing to this day. Goldberg is "Goldmountain", Rosenblum" is "Roseflower", Finkelstein is "SparklingStone" etc. Occasionally however the guards must have run out of imagination and gave names that were not too bad. "Wiesengrund" is an example. It means "Meadowland", which sounds rather pleasant to me. In one of those ironies with which life abounds, however, the most prominent bearer of that name for his entire professional life used the pen-name of "Adorno", which is Spanish for "ornament"! Words fail me!</I><BR/><BR/>I'm of mostly German Catholic extraction, but my own unusual surname, "Weisensee," (an Anglicized spelling of <I>Weißensee</I>) is one of those names with a very straightforward translation: "white lake." All of those Weisensee ancestors of whom I am able to trace seem to originate in the vicinity of Berlin. I presume, then, that the name comes from the old district of Berlin of the <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin-Weissensee" REL="nofollow">same name</A>.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com