Subject: BAGWIG unbagg'd

From: Elliott A Moreton <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 21 Dec 2001 18:46:21 -0500 (EST)

It was a hard-fought contest, but Melissa's pickpocket wins with 9 points
to her next competitors' 7 (Linda's circuit judge and Jean-Joseph's
subterranean algae). The real definition garnered a measly 2, putting it 
8th in a field of 12.

Perhaps, while we are waiting for the next word, Nora can explain to us 
about Baddersly, and Eric can introduce us to the fabulous Talbot Mundy.  

Well done!  Take it away, MyS!
em

________________________________________________________________________
RANJIT
bagwig -- (adj.)  (Pennsylvania Dutch, pronounced "bogwitch")  Sloppily 
or inappropriately dressed.
4 = Eric 1 + Jean-Joseph 2 + David 1
Nora:  "Ranjit and I went to the "new" Museum of American Folk Art.  We 
saw lots of PA Dutch things, but not much of it was bagwiggy."  Pierre:  
"Implausible pronunciation."  Eric:  "Good adjective, since I so often am 
it.  Except that pronounced that way, it sounds kind of like a made-up 
word, like "manwich"."  Jean-Joseph;:  "The pronunciation bit is sweet."

LINDA
Bagwig -- (n.)  British judge, barrister, or solicitor who travels from 
court to court to hear or try cases in outlying villages.  Slang (v.) said of 
those who render an unpopular decision or defend an unpopular client, leaving 
the village to live with the results.  "Baddersley bagwigged us on the Norton 
case; now we must support the blasted family."
7 = 1 (correct guess) + Pierre 2 + Hutch 1 + Eric 2 + Amy 1
Nora:  "Bloody Baddersley!".  Hutch:  "Not finding ANYthing else worth 
voting for, I have to select this one as the best of a bad lot."  Ranjit 
:  "Haw!  Bag and wig!  Well done."  Eric:  "If he weren't running this 
round, I'd guess that this was Elliott's definition.  So who are you?"  
Jean-Joseph:  "Aside from the fanciful nature of the quote, I am also led 
to suspicion by the space in the word "the", as if a line break error 
occurred when the definition was copied from someone's email message."

MYS (MELISSA)
bagwig -- (n.)  A professional pickpocket affiliated with a traveling 
carnival
= Linda 2 + Hutch 2 + Fran 1 + David 2 + Aussie 2
Nora:  "I'd like to see a professional nose picker!".  Hutch:  "This is 
the only one I actually find vaguely believable"  Jean-Joseph:  "So... by 
implication, there are also amateur pickpockets?  And maybe people who 
snatch purses as a hobby?"  Aussie:  "I believe it!"

JUDITH
bagwig -- (n.)  Common name for Anoplura uspens, a species of head louse.
 = 1 (correct guess)
Pierre:  "Isn't Anoplura the order?"  Jean-Joseph:  "A wig bug?"

AUSSIE
bagwig -- (n.)  Adolescent (3-6 months old) opossum, which rides both on 
the mother's back and in her marsupium.
= Nora 2 + Ranjit 1
Ranjit:  "Aww, lookit da widdle bagwig!"  Jean-Joseph:  "I'd think that 
once they left, Mom would want them to stay out."

PIERRE
bagwig -- (n.) [bag + an obscure second element] (pejorative) 1. A poor 
person 
who carries his belongings in a bag or bags. 2. A shabbily dressed vagrant.

DAVID
bagwig -- (n.)  A woman who has sold her hair to a wigmaker.
= Melissa 1
Nora:  "for a new chain for her husband's pocketwatch, right?!"  
Jean-Joseph:  "Sounds like, it being the holiday season, somebody has 
been reading the works of Bill Porter."

REAL
bagwig -- (n.)  A wig with the back hair encased in a small silk sack, 
worn in t
he 18th century.
2 = Linda 1 + Judith 1
Linda:  "Very compelling--is this done for a religious reason, or to 
leave room for the white powdered wig?"  Nora:  "I am not sure I can 
picture this, but I can see some 18th century weirdo making something 
like this."  Pierre:  "No bags or wigs. Especially no wigs in bags."  
Joe:  "I swore I wouldn't vote for anything that involved bags or wigs, 
but if I were going to, it would have been this one."  Jean-Joseph:  
"And the silk sack is a wigbag?  Way too obvious."

ERIC
bagwig -- (adv.) in a slipshod and hasty manner.

   "The pitch-dark compound was in quiet confusion.  There
    were camels being loaded all bagwig, and the elephants
    were in line beside the balcony, from whose upper deck
    the girls, already masked in black, were stepping down
    like goblins into the curtained howdahs."

           Talbot Mundy, _Om, The Secret of Ahbor Valley_
6 = Pierre 1 + Joe 2 + Amy 2 + Jean-Joseph 1
Pierre:  "One point for having the flutzpah to pick an adverb. But it's 
probably David."  Ranjit:  "Randall award?"  Amy:  "Two points for 
creativity... great quotation."  Jean-Joesph:  "This will probably turn 
out to be Ranjit, but I do like the nerve
required to go with an adverb, especially when the word doesn't end with
-ly."  Fran:  "honorable mention for such a lovely example, but no points."

JOE
bagwig -- (v.)  (1) To wash up on the beach in the surf.  (2) (Slang) In 
surfboa
rding, to wipe out and lose one's board in the water.
3 = Nora 1 + Melissa 2
Melissa:  " 2 to the surfboard, because I never think of surfboards"  
Jean-Joseph:  "I think I once saw a puzzle in which you had to deecode 
surfer slang, and I don't remember seeing this word."

JEAN
bagwig -- (n.)  An algal growth that occurs on limestome cave formations 
when ex
posed to sustained light, as from tourist installations.
7 = James 2 + Ranjit 2 + Fran 2 + Aussie 1
Nora:  "Bloody Baddersley!"  Ranjit:  "moonmilk award!"  Jean-Joseph:  
"But this does really happen, so they try to keep the lights turned off 
as much as possible these days."
Fran:  "2 points, because I have seen this mossy growth inside tourist 
caves and it
deserves a good name like bagwig."  Aussie:  "Impressive.  Unique."

JIM
bagwig -- (vt.)  1a: To belittle the importance of.  1b: To mock.
4 = Joe 1 + James 1 + Judith 2
Nora:  "Bloody Baddersley!"

------
Jean-Joseph:  "There was one weird hit, though: somebody *posted a note* 
(a year or more ago) that the domain name bagwig.com is no longer available:
http://www.lucidpromotion.com/domains/ch.cgi?h=bagwig.com   Indeed it has
been snapped up, by a squatter.  No surprise that they haven't managed to 
sell it.)"

And Eric's .sig deserves wider exposure:

> -- Eric  |  <[email-masked]>           <-- note new address
>
>             END OF INTERNET PROPHESIED!
>            "... and they that weave networks, shall be confounded."
>             Isaiah, 19:9

---

From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 26 Dec 2001 09:51:30 EST

New word tomorrow; I just got back in the office....

- MyS

---

From: Jean-Joseph Cote <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 26 Dec 2001 18:20:46 -0500

>>            "... and they that weave networks, shall be confounded."

Or as the Revised Standard Version has it, "The workers in combed flax
will be in despair, and the weavers of white cotton".  Bringing back my
riposte to those who insist that every word of the Bible is literally
true -- maybe, but who edited (or on this case translated) this thing?

Jean-Joseph