The Squeeze

[mamas_minion]

As Arnold looked over his cards at the men he was playing with, a wry smile crossed his lips.  He couldn’t help it. These protégés of his were turning out to be great success stories.  He was going to be handing over his bootlegging business to Irving and Meyer to run, while Charlie, Frank and Lepke were busy with trying to organize a nationwide

Comments

[kehlen]

Very interesting.

[mamas_minion]

Thank you

[karmasoup]

This is very educational. I wouldn't have known to have guessed that it would be, but you've managed to work a lot of detail about what happened into a man who wasn't responsible defending himself against accusations of being involved in pulling off a crime he didn't commit. That takes some mad skillz, dude!

[mamas_minion]

Thank, I felt the prompt fitted this scandal fairly well.

[halfshellvenus]

I think "kibitzing" might have been the word you were looking for, instead of 'kibbutzing.' Unless the men are forming a commune in that back room or something. :O

The character voice in this is terrific, almost as if you have a Jewish uncle in the family you've listened to for years.

You know, I wasn't expecting actual historical figures here in addition to the Black Sox aspect. Nicely done!

[mamas_minion]

You are probably right on that I was just using words I have heard used before. While brain storming with my house mate the idea of the black sox scandal came up and I felt I needed to run with it.

[karmasoup]

It's my fault there's a typo. He doesn't have a Jewish uncle, he has a housemate who grew up on the East Coast. I'm sure I probably said it wrong when I was suggesting it.

(<<< not Jewish!)

Kibbitzing and Kibbutzing are easily confused for me, as they are related. I know if you do a quick Google search, the binary monkeys will to tell you that Kibbitzing is idle chatter/gossip, and Kibbutzing is a collective Jewish community.

The Yiddish Handbook, however, gives the best summary of how I constantly cross my wires on this one:

kibbitz
In Yiddish, it’s related to the Hebrew “kibbutz” or “collective.” But it can also mean verbal joking, which, after all, is a collective activity. It didn’t originally mean giving unwanted advice about someone else’s game - that’s an American innovation.

So, because we don't have enough languages being thrown around in here (did you catch the cajun and the Italian?), I will also add,

mea culpa!

[halfshellvenus]

I caught the Italian, but not the Cajun!

I can see how those words would be related, really. I really enjoy Yiddish-- it's not only really expressive, but there are so many words for entire concepts that English lacks. "Loser" does not begin to cover schlemiel or schlemazel, or the fact that there's a distinction between the two. :D

[bleodswean]

*applauds* This is really superb. It is SO difficult to write card games and yet you've done that skillfully AND added your flair for dialogue! This is a great piece of work.

[mamas_minion]

Thank you

[beeker121]

I like this one; some baseball, some gangsters and a card game. I love that all of your characters are based on historical people, it's a nice touch.

[mamas_minion]

Thank you, I wanted to make it kind of fun. while still getting some history across