Because of my mixed heritage I have been confused for pretty much all of your swarthy, hirsute ethnicities at one point or another—Jewish and Italian, obviously but also occasionally Hispanic, Greek, and even once, by a cab driver who unrelatedly treated me to a crash course in Syrian profanity, as Lebanese. I am a dark and hairy man, and that's part of the deal. (This is also why I won't get bed bugs.) Still, I am irritated every time this holiday (this holiday is Hanukkah, or however you spell it) rolls around and I am accosted in the street by furtive Hasidic men who look at me with [...]

It is a busy time in the life of the creation of necessary German words. Writes one fine reader: "So my friend and I were talking today about how we were both a little sad when Jenna Fischer and her ex-husband who made that awesome horror movie and whose brother was Kirk on Gilmore Girls broke up. There should totally be a German word for feeling stupid about feeling sad when celebrities you like break up." Yes there should be! And?