I enjoy reading Babs De Lay’s Utah Real Estate feature each week in the classified section of the paper. Her recent article on Ogden was fascinating [“O-town Rocks!,” Feb. 21, City Weekly].
One word jumped out at me, however. “Chatskis” sounds a lot like “tchotchkes,” so I assume that she was referring to those little decorative knick-knacks so ubiquitous at garage sales.
Urban Dictionary defines a tchotchke as “a piece of worthless crap,” and variously spells the word “chotchkie,” “tsatske” and the original Yiddish “tshatshke.”
De Lay may be breaking new ground here. I think her spelling “chatski” connotes a particular type of worthless piece of crap, maybe something depicting a winter scene, involving talkative skiers. The possibilities are endless.
RAY WILMOT
Salt Lake City
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