Stern's other room-mate was a small, flabby ex-Navy man named Footsy
who had motherly-looking breasts and a large fund of anal jokes
developed on shipboard. There grew up among the three a jargon and
patter, all of which hinged on Jewishness. The motherly Navy man might
suddenly arise during a study period, hold his stomach, and leave the
room. "Where are you going?" the redhead might ask, to which Footsy
would answer, "I can't stand the Jewishness in the room," bringing
forth howls of amusement. Or Stern might make a remark about the
weather, to which the Navy man would say, "How Jewish of you to say
that." If Stern were to utter a pronouncement of any kind, one of
his room-mates would invariably retort: "Said with characteristic
Jewishness." Long imaginary dialogues were carried on between the
redhead and the Navy man in which the redhead was a job applicant and
Footsy was an employment director, reluctant to hire him. Finally,
Footsy, prodded to explain why, would say briskly, "Well, if you must
know, its because of certain minority characteristics we'd rather not
go into," and all in the room would break up laughing. The Navy man
would often do a storm trooper imitation, in which he got to say,
"Line dem opp against the fwall and commence mit the shooting," and
a boy down the hall named Wiegel who had sick feet would come in and
do another German officer, saying, "Brink in the Jewish child. Child,
ve eff had to execute your parents." The redhead would try Mussolini
in his last days, but Footsy, the Navy man, would say, "Stick to your
one gag." Footsy would lie in bed for hours twisting lyrics of popular
songs to get Jews into them: "Beware my foolish heart" became "Beware
my Jewish heart," "Fool that I am" turned into "Jew that I am," and
"I'm glad I met you, wonderful you" emerged "I'm glad you're Jewish,
you wonderful Jew." Stern chipped in with a full lyric that went (to
the tune of "Farmer in the Dell"):
The Jews caused the war.
The Jews caused the war.
We hate the Jews
Because they caused the war.
On occasion, the president of the boardinghouse, a short boy with
quivering old-man jowls, would appear in the room and say, "These
things aren't funny," after which Footsy would poke Stern in the ribs
and whisper, loud enough for all to hear, "He's being _very_ Jewish,"
and the president would stomp off, jowls in a rage.
Although much dating was done by the social club, little attention
was paid to the girls of the single Jewish sorority, who wore the
traditional campus skirts and sweaters but who seemed somehow an
acne-ed, large-shouldered parody of the brisk, blond girls of the
gentile sororities. Only sick-footed Wiegel took out what Footsy
described as "laughing, dark-eyed beauties." When Wiegel announced that
he'd booked another for Saturday night, Footsy would say, "But she's a
pig," to which Wiegel would answer, "Yes, but you've got to date the
pigs to get to the gentile queens."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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