When your speaker calls you “boychik,” you’d bettter listen up, boychik

And finally, a harrowing and instructive anecdote emerged in the aftermath of the death last week of Israeli star speechwriter Yehuda Avner.

You’ll want to read why prime minister Levi Eshkol got in young Avner’s face and said, “Boychik, if you don’t stop writing your fancy-schmancy nonsense and start writing what I want to say in the way I want to say it, I’ll find somebody else who will.”

“Yes, Prime Minister,” Avner mumbled, “eating a piece of humble pie I would spend a lifetime digesting.”