Oy vey is an exclamation of dismay or desperation in Yiddish. Now it is used by a large number of non-Yiddish speakers in America, and especially in and around New York City. Of Germanic origin, it comes from oh weh or au weh, which are commonly used in Bavaria and Austria. Oh ve is a similar expression in Danish and Swedish. But why am I going on and on about this exclamation? I just read an article about an exhibition of Ai Weiwei’s work in Berlin, which will soon move to San Francisco. The Chinese artist is getting to be extremely popular in both Europe and America, where he is hailed as a potent critic of the Chinese regime. What is more, his popularity in the west helps protect him from vicious persecution at home, which only adds to his popularity. For my sins, I have started confusing his name and the Yiddish exclamation. “Oy vey,” I mumble to myself whenever I spot his face on the World Wide Web, “it’s Ai Weiwei again!”