Bupkes: Yiddish for “beans” or “nothing”

If it wasn’t for the White House plaque behind Bush press secretary Tony Snow – you might have thought you’d stumbled into the spelling bee instead of the daily White House briefing for reporters.

Fresh off of yesterday’s emotional run-in with the press (Enquirer story here), Snow started the briefing by telling reporters that he’s coined a new term for a list of answers to questions they had the day before that he hadn’t been able to answer.

It’s the “Bupkes List.” As in - You don't know bupkes (nothing).

Immediately, someone asked, “How do you spell ‘bupkes’?

To which, Snow repied: “b-u-p-k-u-s”

He was then informed by the all-knowing White House press corps that the term is Yiddish, and spelled with an “e-s” instead of “u-s.”

“Thank you,” Snow said. “Corrected. E-s.”

Actually, it's also spelled b-u-p-k-i-s.

Read the day's transcript here.