On Friday, I used the expression, “Witnesses, shmitnesses.” (For context, not that it matters much, go here.) I also quoted Solzhenitsyn on the U.N.: not the united nations, but the united governments or regimes, with all that that entails.
A reader wrote to remind us of David Ben-Gurion’s classic putdown of the U.N. The U.N., in Hebrew, is referred to as “Oom.” Ben-Gurion once quipped, or snapped, or observed — I wish I could have heard him and his tone — “Oom, shmoom.”