and she said.. "how you interpret the dream is probably more important than the dream itself"

For quite a few years now I have been calling my local drinking establishment by the nickname Tchotchke's, after the miserable chain restuarant of the Applebee's variety in the movie Office Space. Not because my drinking establishment is miserable, but just because it's fun to have pet names for things if only to confuse those who have no idea what you are talking about (being pretentious is fun!). However I was, until today, previously unawares that this is a yiddish term for trinket:

tchotchke \tchotch"ke\ n.
1. [Yiddish tshatshke, trinket, from Pol. czaczko. --MW10.] a knickknack or trinket; a decorative item or souvenir of little value. [Also spelled chotchke.]

How very fitting and in fact very blatant (had I known), given the annoying "pieces of flair" joke in the movie.

So how did I learn this bit of new today? Oddly, I must give credit to an article discussing the recent move by the Chinese to un-attach their currency to the U.S. Dollar:

... some economists worry that China may have unleashed economic forces that will eventually worsen inflation by making all Asian imports more expensive.

"In the scheme of things, 2 percent [increase in the yuan] isn't a huge increase," said Jack Kyser, chief economist with the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. "But China has a subtle way of punishing us." ...

... The value of imports from China rose nearly 100 percent, to $75.7 billion, between 2000 and 2004, with textiles and molded plastics leading the way.

"And it's the tchotchke makers (pens, flashlights, etc.) that are going to be paying the price in the future," Kyser said.

Needless to say, Jack Kyser seemed to understand that I wasn't smart enough to know what the term meant he included some useful context (pens, flashlights, etc.)

The second definition of tchotchke? A mistress..

Update: Blogger The Agonist wins best headline award on this one: Yuan, Forest, Yuan!