Across the Fence: Schuss

Never did I know that the German word Schuss (pronounce: shoos with a very short oo, meaning shot) made it into the English language. Well, I was only just born when the mascot Schuss of the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble, France, made its one-season appearance. As there is a copyright on the image, I can’t post it in this article. But it looks like a little bubble-headed flash in blue, white, and red (the colors of the French flag) on skis. Just google Schuss, mascot, and image.

Of course, there was a reason for the mascot’s name. Schuss describes straight downhill skiing, no slalom, nothing else. I’ve done this involuntarily back in the day more than once due to lack of better skills. In my German school, twelfth and 13th grade had a skiing day in the German Alpes, and I went along having learned basic skiing in nineth grade (and never been skiing since, as my family didn’t ski). We were not supposed to go anywhere alone, so I was stuck with a group of friends who were all seasoned skiers; they took me on, but that was it. When they chose a Black Diamond slope (I’d have been very comfortable being on my own on a very easy slope …), I knew I was in for it. Sure enough, a large mogul slope lurked on the course, and though I tried to slalom and break with what little skills I had, my speed grew and grew. Afraid that I might overshoot the slope and end up creating an avalanche or, worse, fall to my death, I decided to go full Schuss. It worked. By the time I had risen at the foot of the slope and put on my skis again (falling was the most efficient braking I knew), my more skillful friends had reached me, too. I would rue that full day of skiing, doing this Schuss part over and over again for the rest of my school year and then some. I bit my tongue about the incredible pain each and every step took me; any surgery on my knees would have cost me that school year and, thus, graduation the following year. It’s not a secret that I never tried skiing again.

But why is the word Schuss, i.e. shot, used for a skiing discipline? Because you are as fast as a bullet. Which is why some fast trains are called bullet trains. They SHOULD be called shot trains, in my humble opinion, but that would probably mislead people to think that these trains were not operable. Anyhow, the German word Schuss applies first and foremost to the meaning of shot as with a gun.

Anybody knowing their culinary German will also know that Schuss means a shot, aka a splash of a drinkable liquid, interestingly anything BUT water. It can apply to a shot of flavoring sauce or syrup, vinegar, juice, wine, or hard liqueur; not broth or jus, either. You may get offered a Berliner Weiße mit Schuss (pronounce: Bear-‘lee-nah ‘vice’ah mitt shoos, a Berlin white with a shot), which is a wheat beer served with a shot of either raspberry or sweet woodruff syrup. It sounds dreadful, but give it a try. If you like Radler (a beer mix with sparkly lemonade), you might like this as well. There are coffee and tea offers with a shot. The travelers to Europe among you may have enjoyed a Rüdesheimer Kaffee (pronounce: ‘roo-dass-hi-mah cuff-fay, i.e. coffee from Rüdesheim), coffee with a shot of the local brandy, topped off with whipped cream (here’s how to make it home: https://germangirlinamerica.com/rudesheim-coffee-recipe/ ), a Pharisee (with a shot of rum instead), or a Jagertee (pronounce: ‘yaa-ghah-tay, i.e. hunter’s tea), an alcoholic spiced punch with black tea, very popular at skiing resorts and cabins.

Which leads us back to the term Schuss. We always were warned not to go skiing when having drunk anything with a Schuss. (Imagine, we were minors, all of us, but officially permitted to buy and drink beer, wine, and sparkling wine as soon as we passed the age of 16.) Well, that skiing day back when made me experience a bit of the high you may get when going full-speed at any sport. Ever since, I have been preferring doing things at my pace, without taking a tumble at the end.