Subject: the compleat involucel

From: Jean-Joseph Cote <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 22 Jan 2002 01:05:42 -0500

First, a word of apology.  I recieved this definition from Fran:
>involucel - n. - The musical interlude between speakers of
>different religions in an interfaith service.
after the deadline.  It was sent on time, but it appears that all mail
from AOL subscribers is taking about two days to get to me, which is what
happened in this case.

Also, Eric did not send in a definition to begin with, but he did include
the following along with his vote:
>involucre - n. - Money gained either unwittingly or against one's 
>will.  "Joe had not meant to demolish the house with the FBI 
>informant still inside.  But whatever his misgivings over Fat
>Tony's thanks, the involucre made a welcome downpayment
>on his new house."
_______________________________________________________

>involucel - n. - 1. The spiral in a cowry shell, hidden inside
>a symmetric exterior.  2. A similar structure in a coffee bean.
by Pierre.  Kir 2, Elliott 2 = 4 points
Judith: I was with this up to the coffee bean...
Kir: In a COFFEE Bean? *considers the ones I've ground and eaten
straight, or covered in chocoloate. boggles* But after reading the rest,
which seem enitrely, utterly, bogus, I'll give this 2 points.
How...how...weird.
Linda: Involutedness of cowries, nice.
Elliott: Oh, heck.  This is the least bogus-sounding of the lot.
Pierre: Coffee is in the same family as gambier, so if no one votes for
this, I'll be madder than a cat's claw.
[Not sure how mad that would be (or what you're talking about), but
thanks to Kir for saving us from it!  And you can always count on
Elliott.  J-J]

>involucel - n. - Mucilage made from ground rabbit bones.
by David.  correct guess 1 = 1 point
Linda: Could this be it?  It's so weird.
Melissa: Oh, and yuck for the rabbit mucilage.
Elliott: Euwwwww!

>involucel - n. - Part of the sympathetic nervous system, these
>cels are found along the postganglionic fibers.  Their purpose
>is to perform automatic duties for the body, such as maintaining
>heart rhythms, maintaining sleep patterns, maintaining feeling
>throught the body, and stimulating glandular secretions.  Because
>they are sympathetic and allied with the subconscious parts of the
>brain, they have been known to perform such odd jobs as allowing
>you to sleep through important lectures, scream at your computer
>in front of an audience, and eat that second piece of chocolate cake.
by Linda.  Pierre 2, correct guess 1 = 3 points
Pierre: Two points for making me laugh.

>involucel - n - A nerve fiber in the insect eye.
by Judith.  David 2, correct guess 1 = 3 points

>involucel - n. - (Botany) A secondary involucre, as at the base of an
>umbellule in a compund umbel.
from The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language.  Judith 1,
Ranjit 1, Kir 1, Pierre 1, Eric 2
Ranjit: I love botanical words.
Kir: I'm convinced its untrue but I like it so much.
Linda: ARRGGGHHH!
Pierre: Now I have to talk to my lawyer about suing a libellule for
libel.
Elliott: ... often inhabited by a malshave or malshrag.
[see further information at the bottom -- and yes, it should have been
"compound"]

>involucel (collective n.) - The mismatched words and sentence
>fragments at the bottom of a bag of candy hearts.
by Ranjit.  Linda 2, Snibor Eoj 1, Elliott 1 = 4 points
Aussie: Betcha a nickel this is that sillyass Ranjit.
Linda: This gets 2 points for creativity.
Snibor Eoj: This really deserves a point, so I'll give it one.
Elliott: Very nice!

>involucel - n. - The dormant image layer of a random dot
>stereogram, or "magic eye" image.
by Aussie.  Judith 2, David 1, Linda 1, Melissa 2 = 6 points
Linda: Wait, they make cels and sell them from cartoons, don't they?
Elliott: "Dormant image layer"?  Nahhhh.

>involucel - n. - A pocket of air held underwater by a man-made object.
by Snibor Eoj.  Aussie 1, Hutch 2, Ranjit 2, Melissa 1 = 6 points
Aussie: Not likely, but none of them are, and it is pretty cool~ one
point
Hutch: At first, none of these seemed believable. Then I got to the end.
Ranjit: That's just bizarre.
[note: Joe sent in this definition "(emailing wirelessly, from my laptop,
on Perl Whirl in the Caribbean)".  We trust he is swabbing hard, of
course.]

>involucel - n - (chiefly Brit.) Tinsel.
by Melissa.  Aussie 2, Hutch 1, Snibor Eoj 2, correct guess 1 = 6 points
Aussie: Two points for verve and British contrariness.
Elliott: Could be one of those awful British brand names, like Sellotape,
I suppose.  But then wouldn't it be capitalized?  They do fancy their
capital letters over there, don't they.
_________________________________

So who won?  Unfortunately, I was right: Eric's late ballot turned it
into a four-way tie; luckily, the additional tying contestant turned out
to be the dictionary.  And the final ballot from Elliott had no effect on
the winners: Aussie, Snibor Eoj, and Melissa.  THEREFORE:

I decree that these three shall take turns proposing words until one of
them comes up with a word that nobody knows.  And they shall go in order
of who has least recently conducted a round: First Snibor Eoj, then
Aussie, then Melissa.  And round and round, etc., as need be.  And if
they want to do it some other way, thet's their business.
_________________________________
Further info on the real definition:
involucre - n - A whorl or series of leaflike scales or bracts beneath or
around a flower or flower cluster.
umbel - n. - A flat-topped or rounded flower cluster in which the
individual flower stalks arise from about the same point as in the carrot
and related plants.
umbellule - n. - One of the smaller secondary umbels forming a compound
umbel.

I'm not all that keen on words like this, but part of what attracted me
to it was the fact that the American Heritage for some reason beyond my
comprehension decided to pick this word for an illustration in the margin
(the only one on that page).  Helpful to understand what it is, or
course, but who really needs to know?

Jean-Joseph

---

From: Pierre Abbat <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 22 Jan 2002 10:02:31 -0500

> thanks to Kir for saving us from it!  And you can always count on

Gambier is Uncaria gambir. Cat's claw is U. tomentosa. Both are in the family 
Rubiaceae, along with coffee, ixora, cinchona, gardenia, and madder.

The "betel nut", with which gambier is chewed, is actually the areca nut; 
betel is a species of pepper (Piper, not Capsicum) whose leaves are chewed 
with areca.

phma