Oh, that cover is so fluffy, so pretty, so… dedicated in its quest to define a Yiddish word that I love: ONGEPOTCHKET. It means, basically, “Messed up, slapped together without form, excessively and unesthetically decorated.” A restaurant that is hosed down with angels, fake snow and overdone twinkly candles? Ongepotchket. Curiously flexible humans on a bed of lavender fabricplosion? Ongepotchket!
So that’s my word – but I’ve already won because I read this book and enjoyed it. So it’s time to crown the winner of the Caption That Cover contest!
First: Honorable mentions go to the following find folks and their suggested one-word descriptions:
Pamela C: gesundheit
Jayne: textilphilia
Kristi: fluffstrosity
Kaelie: Itchy
thetawnytart: tramp l’oeil
Ana: fuchsiarrhea
Jason: dry clean only
But the winner of the Caption That Cover: One Word edition is: jayhjay for “Organzasm. I read that and spit soda out my mouth – and several of you did too, if the comments are to be believed. JayHJay, email me at sarahATsmartbitchestrashybooksDOTcom with your mailing address and the bookstore of your choosing. I’ll send a copy of the book and a $25 gift card to said bookstore.
Congrats and thank you everyone for playing along!
thank you, thank you for the spelling of Ongepotchket……one of my favorite words but didn’t know how it was spelled.
Congrats to Jayhjay – that contest was huge fun, and a bit terrifying into the bargain!
Ongepotchket – that is a keeper!
I’m really sorry I missed this one, especially as my teenager took one look at it and suggested “Does this shiny ribbon make me look fat?”
ONGEPOTCHKET.
OMG. I will have to use that word in five sentences today.
Yeah!!!! Thanks Sarah, and thanks to everyone who gave organzasm a big thumbs up!
And my Yiddish speaking mother would definitely agree the cover is also very ONGEPOTCHKET!
Forgot to add there is no greater compliment than being able to make someone spit out their soda! You guys have made me do it many times!
Ongepotchket-my new favorite word. Now, can somebody post the pronunciation, please?
It is a hard word to say, especially b/c there isn’t a direct English translation for a lot of the sounds, but here is as close as I could get. My mom grew up speaking Yiddish and this is what she said:
un – guh – pahtch – kit
Accent is on the first syllable. The “u” in “un” is more like the double oo in “foot” than the “uh” sound.
jayhjay is right – it’s uhn-guh-pahtch-kit, or, alternatively, ohn-gee-pahtch-kit.
It is the BEST Yiddish word EVER.
Congrats! The contest was fun.
Perhaps this isn’t the best place to admit this, but I don’t mind the cover so much. Yes, it’s excessive and Old Skook, but I like it more than many of the man-titty-hairline-to-heaven covers that are so popular now.
Congrats to the winners and to us for having a new word in our vocabulary. Looking around now for something to apply it to. Nothing in my home, of course, but I’m sure I’ll spot something as I move about Tucson.
That cover looks like scrapbook heaven and my word for it would have been tullerious but I was late to the party. On the flexible front, I would have you ponder the cover for Her Ladyship’s Companion. Where is his other leg? And what the heck happened to his torso, I think he might be two cans shy.
Love ongepotchket, great meaning and fun to say. One of my favorites is sine qua non, so much better than prerequisite. Now if I just knew how to pronouce organzasm. The couple up there appear to be in the midst of a lavenderiffic one.