Hair today
A clue in today’s New York Times crossword puzzle:
Curly ethnic hairstyle, colloquially
Answer:
JEWFRO
Times’ puzzle blogger Patrick Merrell comments:
JEWFRO! Really? Is that something we can say? It’s funny, I like it and I can remember hearing it a time or two but, not being Jewish, I’d be kind of afraid to use it. Should I be? I guess that would make my brother’s hairdo back in the ’60s a WASPfro, a massive heap that earned the nickname Zoo Hair in college.
Don’t worry, Mr. Merrell — this (straight-haired) Jew approves.
(I think it’s the use of “Jew” as an adjective that makes people antsy, a la Archie Bunker talking about “Jew lawyers.” Which reminds me of a favorite Israeli memory: In Hebrew “yehudi,” the word for Jew, can be both a noun and an adjective. Which is why I’d sometimes hear Israeli tour guides talking about the “Jew army” or Jerusalem’s “Jew quarter.”)
Advertisement
JustASC is written by Andrew Silow-Carroll, Editor-in-Chief of the 
June 28th, 2010 at 5:59 pm
As a frizzy-headed person who is part Jewish, I am not sure which cultural background my own personal ‘fro comes from—however, I am not adverse to it being referred to as a “Jewfro”. :)