the chott winner

[FPoodry at aol.com]

One of my favorite old Calvin and Hobbes strips is the one where Calvin buys 
the school's lunch and tells Susie it "appears to be cigar butts in a 
gallstone sauce" and Susie yells "That's beany-weenies!" Go cigar butts! Go 
Melissa!  Go Duke! (not that I care, actually, but it's closer than Arizona 
and I was there for 3 weeks once)
:-)
-Fran

chott (n) 1. The depression surrounding a salt marsh, esp. in North Africa. 
2. The bed of a dried salt marsh.
by Webster's II New Riverside University Dictionary
Qattara Depression (David)
1 point (Judith)
1 point  Because there should be such a thing, and it should sound drier than 
a slough.  But why "especially" in North Africa? Why not Cape Cod? (Kir) [I 
dunno.  I'm just copying the dictionary. -Fran]
One point.  Plausible enough. (Jacob)
Probably someone else thinking of Nouakchott. (Pierre)
1 point (Jean-Joseph)

chott (v) Babble.
by Judith  (1 point total)
1 point correct guess

chott (n) Mildewy residue that accumulates in drainage pipes.
by Nora (4 points total)
2 mildewey points. (Ranjit)
2. (Pierre)

chott (n) The waste left over from processing flax, consisting of non-fibrous 
materials, such as seed pods, outer covering, and fluff.  After a final 
cleaning and chopping, it is added to animal feeds.
by Linda (2 points total)
Somebody stole my definition! And who says seedpods aren't fibrous? I also 
suspect it would give animals an awful tummyache. (Aussie)
2 points (David)
Wow, 3 biomass/leftovers definitions.  I'm tempted by this, but it seems 
wordy, somehow. (Kir)
Sounds like someone was thinking of chaff... (Snibor Eoj)
I notice there are a couple of defs involving the leftovers from plant 
processing being used for animal feed.  Perhaps folks were thinking of 
"chaff"?(Jacob)
This is very reminiscent of bagasse (Jan '98) (Jean-Joseph)

chott (n) A partially-smoked cigar, large enough to relight.
by Melissa (10 points total)
1 point and the locofoco award. (Ranjit)
I don't believe it, but I want to give it 2 points, because I'm so confused 
about all that biomass and livestock feed... (Judith)
Yes, but unless you do that soon, they dry out and aren't so tasty...er... so 
I'm told. (Kir)
Two points.  The thing needs a name, the name sounds right. (Elliott)
Two points.  I can just see a slightly down-at-the-heels fellow, who saves 
his old chotts for a rainy day...(Jacob)
1 point also for the partly-smoked cigar, as it sounds like a Depression word 
from the era when nothing was wasted; mainly it sounds like a reward for a 
good guess, when you don't get the whole cigar.  Personally I detest cigars 
because the smell makes me nauseous, plus my chain-smoking mother died of 
lung cancer, and my aunt coughed her guts out from emphysema. (Linda)
I like this one 2 points! (Nora)
A shortened cheroot, almost?  If you smoke loco-focos (loco-foci? loci-foci?) 
perhaps they will relight themselves. (Jean-Joseph)

chott (n) A block of wood measuring 1"x1"x2".
by Snibor Eoj (3 points total)
Well, at least it's precise. Two points for the 1"x1"x2" block. (Aussie)
Chock award. (Ranjit)
And another scrap of wood. (Kir)
1 point (Melissa)
That would be small enough to qualify as a scrap in most workshops. 
(Jean-Joseph)

chott (n) Any of several palms of the genus Derbigia, found on the west coast 
of Africa.
by Pierre (0 points total)

chott (n) An eccentric capstan winch used on ships, esp. such a winch used to 
lower a lifeboat.
by Jean-Joseph (2 points total)
1 point for correct guess
Crank the chott, matey! Okay, one point. (Aussie)
Steady on the chott, lads! (Ranjit)
Because there are so many biomass scrap stuffs, I'm tempted by this too-- 
because it's different. (Kir)
Sounds like a Shakespearean insult: "Fie, thou eccentric capstan winch!"  Or 
wench. (Melissa)

chott (adj) Tangled. (n) A ball of mating eels.
by Ranjit (5 points total)
Hee, hoo!  Sounds like Ranjit. (Aussie)
Wonky! (Kir)
Invisible points for superlative visual imagery. (Melissa)
I really like this one, so I'm giving it one point. (snibor Eoj)
That's "orgy".  But one point anyway. (Elliott)
Also used to refer to the SWIL incest web... (or is that too narrow a joke 
for this group?) (Jacob)
This is creative, if not the real one and if it is the real one, it is way 
cool. 1 vote.  :) (Nora)
2 points (Jean-Joseph)

chott (n) A survival food used by Siberian nomads, usually made with caribou 
fat, juniper berries, and crushed rye.

by Jacob (4 points total)
1 point correct guess
Golly, these people are gonna be hallucinating in their yurts munching that 
trailmix. (Aussie)
Yurt-relevance award. (Ranjit)
Two points. (Snibor Eoj)
1 point for the (ugh) Siberian survival food because it sounds disgusting 
enough to be eaten when there is nothing else; however, I wonder if rye grows 
in such a cold climate--would that be barley?? (Linda)
And served in all the finest yurts, no doubt. (Jean-Joseph)

chott (n) 1. A scrap of wood  2. Partially-decomposed wood chips, used in a 
biomass gasification process.
by Kir (2 points total)
1 point correct guess
I think this definition has a biomass gasification process going on. (Aussie)
1 point for the decomposed wood chips, because it has that ring to it, sort 
of like the one I devised and the sugar cane one. (Linda)

chott (n) Fibrous residue of the cane sugar refining process, used as 
livestock feed.
by Aussie (6 points total)
1 point (David)
Bagasse award.  Is it time to repost my recipe for bagasse? (Ranjit)
Except that it sounds terribly familiar.  Eh well. 2 pts. (Kir)
Oh, okay, 2 points to this one for sounding more like a dictionary. (Melissa)
1. (Pierre)
This *is* bagasse!! (Jean-Joseph)

other comments:

Interesting pairs of definitions: Two thing found in Africa, two residues 
used in animal feed, two pieces of wood. All sound quite unbelievable. 
(Pierre)

Lots of fibrous, residuey kinds of definitions.  Great minds think alike I 
guess!  :) (Nora)

I don't *want* it to be either of these.  They both bother me.  But which 
bothers me the least?  I guess I'll give two points to the eels and one to 
the salt marsh...[later]...Well, almost right.  It appears that you are using 
the American
Heritage, since the definition matches exactly.  I guess what leaned me 
against it was a) it reminded me too much of "Tchad", and b) you had the guts 
to put the real one first. (Jean-Joseph)