Subject: Another Raddle

From: "lindafowens" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 30 Mar 2001 09:35:06 -0500

Dear All, I am still learning the "rules" of the game, so I was a little miffed when nobody believed my real def of "raddle"  to be a weaving term, as I expressed in comments to Elliott.  I just realized, with the help of Judith and Fran, that you demand sources.  I supposed that my weaving teacher Norma Smayda, who has been Pres. of the Weavers' Guild of America, would be enough of a source, but you do not know her or me.  I thought that my experience teaching weaving occasionally in the past would be enough, but you demand print, as you ought.  I will get back to you.  "Someone" must have moved the dozen or so weaving books I own, and it was time to finish organizing my stacks of various books and videotapes and art materials, anyway.  My interests and collections are varied and profuse, alas.  Somewhere in this vast accumulation of treasures there is a copy of Hardy's The Return of the Native, where The Reddleman is a character (he sells the sheep dip).  I alway hoped to find more info on reddle sheep dip, as I have a number of outdoor animals, (but no sheep); but "reddle" wasn't in my dictionary.  Perhaps it was raddle after all. Perhaps also, there is the origin of "dyed in the wool".  Probably some Aussie films  (the ones with the sheep-shearing contests) could have a bit of dyeing, as well.  Is the sheep dip against parasites or in lieu of branding?.  More later, when I find stuff.  Linda

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From: "Judith E. Schrier" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 30 Mar 2001 09:54:10 EST

On Fri, 30 Mar 2001 09:35:06 -0500 you said:
>Dear All, I am still learning the "rules" of the game, so I was a little miffed
>when nobody believed my real def of "raddle"  to be a weaving term, as I
>expressed in comments to Elliott.  I just realized, with the help of Judith and
>Fran, that you demand sources.

Consider Merriam-Webster's 9th New Collegiate Dictionary, page 970.
Bottom of the left-hand column.  Definition 3 of "raddle"
"[E dial. raddle (supple stick interwoven with others as in making
a fence)] (1671): to twist together : INTERWEAVE.

love, judith

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From: "lindafowens" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 1 Apr 2001 11:55:58 -0400

Dear All, once again.  In searching for my weaving books, I've so far located one pattern manual and two on rag rugs, none appropriate.  Must dig under several landslides of Boy Scout projects, art materials, magazines, and stuff thrown into the so-called studio, but I have revealed too much about myself....  I did find The Return of the Native, which I do realize is written in fictional Wessex dialect.  Also, I came across a Dickens Dictionary  with Two Raddles, Mr. and Mrs., the latter being the landlady of Mr. Bob Sawyer, sister to Mrs. Cluppins, and "a thorough shrew".  I have not yet had the pleasure of reading The Pickwick Papers, but to refresh the minds of those of you who may have, Mr. Bob Sawyer met Mr. Pickwick at Mr. Wardle's.  Later, he hangs out his medical shingle as "Sawyer, late Nockemorf".  He has a nice place, but " half the drawers got nothing in 'em, and the other half don't open. "  Indeed, "hardly any thing real in the shop but the leeches; and they are second hand".  Just one of Sawyer's advertising ploys is to send a boy to a house with vague directions on a bottle of pills, with his name in big letters, which each occupant of the house looks at, reads, and passes on.  The next day, the boy collects the errant bottle with many apologies.  "We have got one four-ounce bottle that's been to half the houses in Bristol and hasn't done yet."  More later, Linda, of the raddled brain.

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From: "lindafowens" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 1 Apr 2001 18:20:14 -0400

Dear Jed,  Thanks for your reply. I had just joined the club when the word
raddle was announced.  I was still not getting all my mail from you guys,
but my friend Judith was relaying things to me.  She told me to make up a
def anyway, which was the rubble one.  Meanwhile, I had told Elliott to
disqualify me because I knew what a raddle was and I had a couple from
weaving.  When the defs to vote on came out, there was no real raddle that I
knew there.  (Only maybe reddle.)  So I wrote to Elliott  (and subsequently
to Fran and Judith) to explain what a weaving raddle was and how it was
used.  (And my reddle references.)  My scanner is not hooked up yet or I
would have sent a picture.  In the meantime, other people and I keep coming
up with more info than anyone probably cares about, but I felt moved to find
it and tell y'all.  Sorry if it is boring.  The notes to Elliott were never
forwarded or broadcast or disseminated, and I did not know how to let
everyone know what I knew until recently, as I never got any "rules", etc.,
just lots of automated messages.  That's why I'm late in getting notes out.
I'm thinking that if anyone wants to see raddle-the-sheep-dip in action, the
movie Far From the Madding Crowd has the shepherds on Boldwood's farm, I
believe, gathering the beasts into a deep puddle for dunking--perhaps it was
against parasites?  I think I am about all raddled out and will lighten up
in the future.  Linda
----- Original Message -----
From: Jed Hartman <[email-masked]>
To: lindafowens <[email-masked]>
Sent: Sunday, April 01, 2001 12:46 PM
Subject: Re: Another Raddle

> Hi, Linda.  I'm a little confused by your raddle notes.  You wrote:
>
> >I was a little miffed when nobody believed my real def of "raddle"
> >to be a weaving term
>
> But your definition according to Elliott's annotated list was:
>
> >raddle -- 1.  (n.)  The rubble left at the bottom of a pile of snow
> >after the snow melts.  2.  (n)  Any annoying thoughts that invade
> >your dreams.  3. (v.) To disturb someone's sleep or dreams with
> >nitpicking little ideas.
>
> And the weaving-related one was attributed to Kir.  So I'm confused.  Was
> the rubble definition really yours?  Was the weaving def Kir's?  Was there
> some other def that didn't appear among the options for voting?
>
> Also, I'm a little confused by your use of the term "real" -- do you mean
> you submitted a definition you believed to be the actual definition of the
> word?  If so, you shouldn't do that -- if you think you know the real
> definition, you should let the word-picker know that at the beginning of
> the round, so they can pick another word.
>
> (Though in this particular round it appears that several of us had
> encountered uses of the word other than the one Elliott had in mind, which
> makes things trickier -- Elliott may've thought that some people who
> thought they knew the word really didn't.)
>
> Am enjoying the results of your researches, though, especially the Dickens
> quotation.
>
> --jed
>
>

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