Subject: the epinasty conclusion

From: Jean-Joseph Cote <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 21 Apr 2002 20:46:52 -0400

Bottom line at the top: the winner is The American Heritage Dictionary. 
Unfortunately, the dictionary will be unable to perform its duties in
picking the next word, so the resposibility passes to the runner-up,
Pierre.
_________________________________
The Billygoat Run:  Nice course, though the shortest on record, and with
the fastest winning time ever (by about a minute).  The rain was
unfortunate for those who wear glasses, but at least it wasn't cold.  The
official finishing deadline was at 4 PM on Saturday, April 20, and only
one person went overtime (though about a dozen didn't finish).  Full
results are available at www.billygoat.org.  And Hutch, the only member
of the fictionariat other than myself who has ever run this race, didn't
even vote.  But Pierre did successfully look it up.
_________________________________
General comments:

Elliott writes:
>Oh, these are good!  Very funny, and hard to tell which one is right.
>Three people seem to have interpreted "ep-" as the French cognate
>of English "sp-":  hedgehogs and porcupines (spines), spinach,
>and possibly echinoderms (doesn't that mean "spiny skin"?).  Also
>a couple of associations to "epilate" and "epidermis".
>
>OK, I just checked on Google, and boy am I wrong.  It really *is* 
>government by echinoderms, and it's already in force in Rhode Island.
>Cool!  Good round.

James writes:
>Let's see, lots of skin (and not just of people), several rulers, and 
>a few small animals. As always, nothing looks right, so I'll take a 
>blind stab...

Pierre writes:
>Two spiny mammals, three rulers, and two hair removers including
>the joke def. What's going on?
__________________________________
The details:

epinasty - n. - A syndrome of unknown origin that causes hedgehogs to
lose their quills.
by David.  Zilch
Ranjit: Yay hedgehogs!
Joe: That sounds pretty nasty..... but is it _epi_nasty?
Josh: This is the first of several in this vein, and therefore suspect.

epinasty - n. - The founder of a dynasty.
by Joe.  Amy 2 = 2 points
Amy: As tempting as it is to vote the porcupine-hedgehog ticket, I think
I'll have to go with two points to this for reasonable-sounding
simplicity
Josh: Hrm.  Tempting, but I'd expect that to be "epinast."  Or possibly
"eponast."

epinasty - n. - A wrapping, that which enfolds.
by Hutch.  Joe 2 = 2 points
Joe: For lack of better defs to vote for, give this two points.

epinasty - n. - 1. The practice of crowding around someone engaged in a
delicate task and attempting to break his or her concentration.  2. In
the Byzantine Greek theatre, competitive ritualized heckling of the
actors by members of rival craft guilds.  3. Hence, the benches at the
foot of the stage where the epinasts sat. 
by Elliott.  Ranjit 1, Melissa 1, Amy 1 = 3 points
Elliott: Hey batter hey batter hey batter!
Ranjit: SHADDUP YA BUM!
David: Admiration.
Amy: one point for amusing derivation.
James: ..and a note of appreciation for this.  On a good day, my note of
appreciation is F-sharp.
Josh: Did Byzantium *have* guilds?  I don't know enough to say myself,
but I just don't associate the one with the other.

epinasty - n. - A pen in which domestic porcupines are raised.
by Ranjit.  Elliott 1, James 1 = 2 points
Elliott: One point for the idea of domestic porcupines.
Joe: Again with the prickly animals?
Josh: There will be no porcupines.  Of course, it'll be one of the
porcupine ones, and then won't I be embarrassed?  Domestic porcupines.
Hm.

epinasty - n. - A downward bending of leaves or other plant parts,
resulting from excessive growth of the upper side.
American Heritage Dictionary.  Fran 1, Aussie 2, James 2, Josh 1, Pierre
1 = 7 points
Fran: nice, dull, probably not it
Aussie: I find this very convincing
Josh: No layers (not directly, anyway) and neither porcupines nor
hedgehogs.  One point.

epinasty - n. - A layer of felt just under the finished roofing, used as
additional weatherproofing (in a roof).
by Fran.  Ranjit 2, David 2, correct guess 1 = 5 points
Elliott: Doesn't feel right with the -y.
Ranjit: Could it be a yurt reference?
Josh: That could get awkward in the damp.  Also, it's a layer.

epinasty - n. - Skin graft.
by Josh.  Melissa 2, Eric 2, correct guess 1 = 5 points
Elliott: By elimination, this must be the real one, but I'm all out of
points.
Eric: Boring enough to be plausible
Josh: I too am guilty of the layer thing.

epinasty - n. - Government or rule by echinoderms; so called after the
fabled island of Epinas.
by Eric.  Elliott 2 = 2 points
Elliott: "Spines" + "dynasty"? Two points.  I am all in favor of
government by echinoderms.  I want to replace the stars on the U.S. flag
with little starfish, and the stripes with sea cucumbers.  Is this you,
Eric?
Ranjit: Pshaw!
David: Echinarchy, surely?
Josh: Hee...
Pierre" All hail Holothur, Epinast of Lusatia!

epinasty - n. - That horrid spinach your parents make you eat anyway.
by Linda (intentionally being preposterous because she knew she wouldn't
be around for the voting).  Eric 1 = 1 point
Eric: Awesome definition!  Love that French derivation.
Joe: Someone is being silly.  Very silly.
Josh: More hee.
Pierre: Letsee, couldn't have been JJ since he's the wordpicker, and I
know it wasn't me - who else knows French? I thought of a spinach def but
decided against it.
[He thinks I know French... (chuckle).  Don't judge a book....   -- J-J]

epinasty - n. - A succession of elected kings, as in Poland.
by Pierre.  Fran 2, Aussie 1, Josh 2, correct guess 1 = 6 points
Fran: clever, probably not it
Aussie: Sure! Everybody knows that!
Josh: Well why not?

epinasty - n. - A procedure in which small patches of bark are removed
from a tree in order to check for fungal or insect infestation.
by Melissa.  Joe 1, Pierre 2 = 3 points
Elliott: "Epidermis" + "epilate"?
Joe" This sounds like something that they have to actually do.  I'm sure
this won't really be the word for it, but I'll give it one point
anyway...
Josh: Believable...but layers.  See comment re porcupine definitions
after the porcupine pen.

epinasty - n. - 1. The practice of using heated wax, adhesive, or tape to
remove hair or bristles.  2. Any depilatory method other than shaving.
by Aussie.  David 1, correct guess 2 = 3 points
Josh: Ow.  I'm sticking to my Norelco.  Tape?

James gets two points for guessing correctly, though he didn't submit a
definition.

J-J

---

From: Jean-Joseph Cote <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 22 Apr 2002 17:23:56 -0400

>Is anyone on the list a roofer?

Certainly not a professional roofer, though I've done a little bit. 
Those who haven't done any roofing should be aware that "felt" in this
context doesn't refer to the pressed wool stuff that you use to make
fedoras, hand puppets and yurts, but is rather the industry term for
something that would be colloquially called "tarpaper".  Typical roof
construction these days has plywood nailed to the rafters, followed by a
layer of roofing felt, with the strips (4' wide) overlapping and glued
together with roofing cement (aka roofing tar, aka sticky black glop). 
Then the shingles go on top of that.  When you redo the roof, you can
just nail a second layer of shingles on top of the old ones, and maybe
even a third, though some prefer to always strip back to the plywood when
putting on new shingles.  I've never seen anybody put felt on top of
shingles, under the second layer, but I'm no expert in these matters.

Jean-Joseph