Yiddish with George and Laura

What do George and Laura Bush have in common with Dick and Jane? Well, both hail from prototypical WASP families. And, perhaps more to the point, both exhibit a natural resistance to moral complexity (i.e., reality).

That’s the premise of this hilarious new primer-style book in which George, Laura, and the entire Bush family communicate with uncharacteristic expressiveness, conveying shades of of feeling and nuances of meaning that plain old English can’t deliver — by peppering their conversatuon with Yiddishisms.

See George’s mother.

Her name is Bar.

She wears a lot of pearls and is a farbisseneh.

“You are late, George,” Bar says.

“Of course I am late,” George says.

“I am the President of the United States. I am a big macher.”

Like all good primers, Yiddish with George and Laura tells a simple story — and, in the end, important life lessons are imparted.