>>>>It's amazing the amount of Yiddish we, even in England, speak regularly: "it's a bit of a schlepp", "he's a schmo/schlemeil", et al (forgive spelling). I love it. Many a put-down expression.
>>>
>>>Its schlemiel and schlemazel. The first one is the waiter that drops the soup on the customer's lap. The second one is the dropee.
>>
>>I looked up schlemiel and schmo this morning in the dictionary. They're both listed and both mean more or less the same: Schmuck :-)
>
>I have the feeling that my Yiddish isn't nearly as good as Alex or Tamar, but the connotations behind those words are very different.
>
>I can't think of a good english word for "schlemiel" or "schlemazel" (or "schmo" for that matter) but I think "schmuck" translates very well to "prick" in both literal and figurative senses. While the other three words all have negative implication, none of them are nearly as strong.

I missed the whole story, since I don't read long threads <g>

Ok, just to suggest something: Read Isaac Bashevis-Singer (?) story "Mazel and Shlimazel". It's a children's story.