Ask A Genius 1204: Schmoozers!
Author(s): Rick Rosner and Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2024/11/13
Rick Rosner: I do believe in magnetic personalities, though, because I live in a town of schmoozers. Do you know what a schmoozer is?
Jacobsen: Yes. Someone who basically kisses up—a kind of social smooth-talker.
Rosner: It’s Yiddish.
Jacobsen: I wasn’t sure if it was in the general non-Jewish lexicon.
Rosner: It is. My stepdad called my mom a “little schmoozer” because she talked so much.
Jacobsen: What would a Yiddish Black Mirror be called?
Rosner: We have golems.
Jacobsen: Golems?
Rosner: Yes.
Jacobsen: I learned that there was another meaning to it when I watched Star Trek: Picard. Picard died from the syndrome he had throughout the series, and Data died with him so he could
Rosner: Interesting. So, did they continue with a whole new series or episodes where Picard is essentially himself but in a different form?
Jacobsen: No, they continued the series. It was a plotline for a few episodes or maybe a season. His health deteriorated, and then he came back as a golem at the end. In the next season, he was just Picard. You could watch that part of the series and not even realize it had happened.
Rosner: Yes, that’s kind of surreal. A strange watershed moment. You’re deep into this. And I’ve told you how Seven of Nine saved America, right?
Jacobsen: Why? Did she hand something off or do something recent?
Rosner: No. Seven of Nine was married to a politician who turned out to be a creep. He wanted to take her to nightclubs and sex clubs and have sex with her in public. This came out during their divorce proceedings—her deposition, I believe—and it cost him his seat in the Illinois state legislature. The guy who replaced him, who wouldn’t have had a chance otherwise, was Barack Obama. So artificial Star Trek beings are woven into U.S. political history.
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