Subject: calibogus resolution

From: Jean-Joseph Cote <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 17 Mar 2004 00:58:15 -0500

First, a couple of joke definitions that I held back:

from Pierre:
calibogus, n. A device for beautifully counterfeiting money.

from Ranjit:
calibogus (n) - an obscure or ambiguous calendrical specification.

General comments --
Elliott: Mostly CALLI- plus BOGUS, so I'll vote for the ones that don't
mention beauty or falsity.
James: I'm a sucker for the pseudoscientific this round.  I'll also give
a collective hiss to anyone who was fixated on the "-bogus" aspect of the
word (false paraside, mythical beast, booby-trapped question, pretending
to be an demonlike entity, etc.). If one of those turns out to be the
actual def, then crow is my dinner.

And Pierre also points out that, as I suspected, I was too casual with
the math, and Caesar died 2047 years ago, not 2048.  (I knew there was no
year 0, but that didn't keep me from screwing up the addition.)
______________________________________

Congratulations to all, because everybody who submitted a definition
scored in this round.  But in what is believed to be the 12th case of a
tagback in recorded fictionary history, Ranjit walks away with a strong
victory.

Aussie got 1 point for:
> calibogus - n. - A false paradise.
correct guess 1

Judith got 1 points for:
> calibogus - adj. - Beautiful, but dumb.
Kir 1
Kir: 1 pt for silly etymology

Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue by Captain Grose et al. 1811  got 5
points for:
calibogus - n. - Rum and spruce beer, American beverage.
Aussie 1, David 1, Linda 1, Elliott 1, Pierre 1
Aussie: Hmmm I might try that - one point
Linda: Who else but Americans would combine rum and spruce?, although the
later is supposed to be bracing and the former adds a good taste, I
suspect.  Still, yucck!
Elliott: "Spruce beer" certainly has that pioneer faute-de-mieux ring,
but spruces are in the north and rum is in the south.  
[My dim recollection of the "triangle trade" is that sugar/molasses was
shipped form the south to the north, where it was distilled into rum that
was shipped to Africa - J-J]
Further information: Perhaps due to the low quality of the available beer
at the time, "beer cocktails" were popular around the beginning of the
19th century.  Others went by names like Dog's Nose, Beer Flip, and
Whistle-Belly-Vengeance.  I was unable to find any etymology for the
term, although one source had a note that it was sometimes just called
"bogus".  Reminiscent of a drink that some people in my dorm used to
drink years ago, called "Yucquieschitz" (or something that sounded very
much like that, anyway), which was prepared from vodka, and red wine that
had sat in a bottle on the floor outside of Joe Boyle's room for at least
one month.

Linda got 2 points for:
> calibogus - n. - A mythical beast thought to be a sea monster.
Fran 1, correct guess 1
Aussie: I'm discounting all monsters.
Elliott: BOGEY.

James got 4 points for:
> calibogus - adj. - Wide-hipped. (also calibogous, callybogous)
Kir 2, Linda 2
Judith: Callipigeous = having a beautiful butt.
Aussie: Pfaugh!
Kir: 2 pts because nothing else seemed any more reasonable :P I like the
alternate spellings. I wonder which species it is usually used for?
Linda: 2 points for no other reason than this def stands out.
Pierre: Callipygeous.

Pierre got 6 points for:
> calibogus - n. - (Cornish) A spirit that haunts women during
menstruation.
Ranjit 2, Judith 1, Elliott 2, correct guess 1
Ranjit: 386 pts - creative [note from J-J: the exchange rate is 193 "pts"
= 1 "point"]
Judith: One point...I always wondered what that was!
Linda: My aunts called it The Curse.
Elliott: BOGEY.  However, oddly plausible.  Two points.

Elliott got 2 points for:
> calibogus - n. - (Rhet.)  A booby-trapped "clarification" question
directed at a public speaker.
Ranjit 1, correct guess 1
Ranjit: 193 pts - evocative

David got 3 points for:
> calibogus - n. - A normal human being pretending to be the
> misshapen son of a witch and a devil.
Aussie 2, correct guess 1
Aussie: I like it! Two Points!
Linda: Sorta like a non-Jamaican with dreadlocks???  Actually, I know
some of these people, and they love the easy-care dreadlocks and are
otherwise--or maybe because of--handsome.
Elliott: TRICK-OR-TREATER.
[Well, I was completely unfamiliar with The Tempest prior to this round,
and I think I had a tendency to confuse it with Titus Andronicus.  I'm
still mostly unfamiliar with it, but I did read enough of a summary
on-line to get this bogus-Caliban joke.  Ho! -- J-J]

Ranjit got 10 points for:
> calibogus - n. - (Botany) an excrescence of sap formed on a woody
> stem or branch at a site of injury.
Judith 2, David 2, Fran 2, Pierre 2, James 2
Linda: Callus???  Right now, my late-pruned pines and maples are dripping
pitch/sap.

Hutch got 1 point for:
> calibogus - n. - [fr. a character in Shakespeare's The Tempest]
> A genus of New World bug with sucking mouthparts and
> forewings thickened and leathery at the base; usually show
> incomplete metamorphosis.
James 1
Judith: You mean named for Calibog, the son-of-a-witch?
Aussie: Well, I never saw The Tempest all the way through, but I read
Robertson Davies' novel about the little theater version, and Caliban
didn't sound *that* bad.
Linda: The character would be Caliban, a probable epithet for an
insect--I think my brother had a cat by that name, but he also had cats
named VanDyke and Figaro.  "Tempted" but out of points.
Elliott: CALIBAN plus BUG.
Pierre: *All* bugs show incomplete metamorphosis, and the other
characters are normal for bugs (at least Heteroptera), so would not be
mentioned in the definition of a genus of bug.
___________________________

So hoist a tankard of calibogus to Ranjit!

Jean-Joseph

---

From: Hutch <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 17 Mar 2004 17:23:11 -0700

Quoting Jean-Joseph Cote <[email-masked]>:
[snip]
> David got 3 points for:
> > calibogus - n. - A normal human being pretending to
> > be the misshapen son of a witch and a devil.

Good grief! I completely missed David's much more subtle 
Tempest reference. I'm impressed!

[snip]
> Hutch got 1 point for:
> > calibogus - n. - [fr. a character in Shakespeare's
> > The Tempest] A genus of New World bug with sucking
> > mouthparts and forewings thickened and leathery at
> > the base; usually show incomplete metamorphosis.
[snip]
> Pierre: *All* bugs show incomplete metamorphosis, and
> > the other characters are normal for bugs (at least
> > Heteroptera), so would not be mentioned in the
> > definition of a genus of bug.

I actually quoted that bit straight out of some 
dictionary's definition of "true bug". *blush* Figured that 
at least one of us would catch that. "Me 'at's off to the 
Dyuke!"

BB,
Hutch