“Don’t she look wonderful?” said one of them.
The widower raised his head.
“Why shouldn’t she look wonderful?” he asked. “Didn’t she spend the whole winter at Palm Beach?”
§ 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.