{"id":46127,"date":"2025-03-14T01:37:04","date_gmt":"2025-03-14T08:37:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=46127"},"modified":"2025-03-13T17:07:31","modified_gmt":"2025-03-14T00:07:31","slug":"what-your-tchotchkes-think","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2025\/03\/14\/what-your-tchotchkes-think\/","title":{"rendered":"What your tchotchkes think"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ever wondered what your leather-bound journal thinks about you? Your menorah? The bowl you made in a pottery class? What astrological sign your keepsakes might be? How they\u2019d like to be handled, cared for? Where they\u2019d like to be in your home?<\/p>\n

For most of us, the answer is probably no \u2026 to all of the above. But Elisabeth Saake has thought of all these things. And, after reading her latest book, Tchotchkes and their F*cked-Up Thoughts: The Messed-Up Minds of Your Trinkets and Treasures<\/i> (Collective Book Studio), you will too. It\u2019s a follow-up to her 2023 Houseplants and Their F*cked-Up Thoughts: PS, They Hate You<\/i>, which she wrote with Carlyle Christoff.<\/p>\n

\"image<\/a>Divided into five sections, no knickknack is spared. Saake covers the whimsical (lava lamp, rubber chicken, etc.), vintage and collectibles (antique compass, souvenir spoon, etc.), cultural and artisanal (woven tapestry, ceramic urn, etc.), spiritual and mystical (worry stone, crystal ball, etc.) and functional and decorative (novelty salt and pepper shakers, participation trophy, etc.).<\/p>\n

About your journal, don\u2019t worry, it thinks \u201cyour poetry is profound\u201d and is \u201ctotally listening and deeply moved\u201d; it only appears to be setting itself on fire.<\/p>\n

But your menorah would like to be treated as more than a \u201cfancy candleholder\u201d: \u201cFill my branches with holy oil from trees grown on the Mount of Olives, just a day\u2019s worth, and watch me burn for eight! Or cram in cheap candles from your big box store\u2019s Hanukkah display. That works, too. Way to honour your ancestors, nudnik.\u201d<\/p>\n

And your handmade pottery is a \u201creal bowl,\u201d even if it \u201cwas made in a beginner\u2019s night class at the community college\u201d: \u201cI\u2019m round enough, I\u2019m stable enough and, doggone it, people like me!\u201d Though, it\u2019s \u201ca bit wobbly,\u201d so perhaps no soup \u2026 maybe just display it on a kitchen shelf, as the \u201cmantel is for the perfect porcelain.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tchotchkes and their F*cked-Up Thoughts <\/i>would make a great gift to any friend (with a sense of humour) who\u2019s a collector of things, or to any friend who has judged others\u2019 collections of things. It\u2019s snarky, a little dark at times, but will bring many chuckles and laughs, even if every joke doesn\u2019t land. It\u2019s colourful and beautifully put together. Hopefully, it will think as highly of you, its place in your home and how you care for it \u2013 and have an astrological sign that\u2019s compatible with yours.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ever wondered what your leather-bound journal thinks about you? Your menorah? The bowl you made in a pottery class? What astrological sign your keepsakes might be? How they\u2019d like to be handled, cared for? Where they\u2019d like to be in your home? For most of us, the answer is probably no \u2026 to all of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[784],"tags":[23668,23895,8779,8302,23894],"class_list":["post-46127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","tag-collective-book-studio","tag-elisabeth-saake","tag-home","tag-lifestyle","tag-tchotchkes-and-their-fcked-up-thoughts"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46127\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}