maguari wins! Or rather...

[metasilk at sover.net]

Aussie’s condiment is complimented with 9 points. Yay, Aussie!
Nice defs, way fun to read (causing giggles and odd looks at work). Sorry to not
send tally out Friday though... the day escaped me in some slithery fashion.  --Kir



Spreads and Commentary follow: 


James: General comment: wow, lots of biology here.
General comment #2: this is much more fun than studying for my finals.

Linda: These were terribly tricky. I split my votes into thirds, 1 point each,
sorry, but I had to.


Elliott wins 3:
maguari (n) 1. A mustache worn on the lower lip. 2. (Mil. sl.) An unforeseen
absurdity required by regulations. [Devised by Capt. F. maguari (1871-1916),
Brazilian Antarctic explorer, to meet the Brazilian army's mustache requirement
while minimizing his men's sniffle problem.] 
     1 (MyS)
     1 (James)
     1 (Linda)
Pierre:   Preposterous. David Randall?
MyS:      delightful but implausible chin mustache, otherwise known as a goatee.
James:    This one's beautifully silly. Did Brazil ever explore the Antarctic? I
imagine that it would have involved more cross-border cooperation with Argentina
than either side would have been comfortable with.
Amy:      Ahahahaha. I truly regret that this definition is clearly false –
sniffle problem! Brazilian Antarctic explorer! Hee!
JJ:       Sounds like the work of Elliott.
Linda:    I can't quite recall the name of the mustache where the sides go down
the cheeks and make the guy look tough, but I like this def because of the
resemblance to my memory, the difficulty of my picturing this one, and the
sniffle problem. If it's wrong, it's still absurdly appealing as a def.


 
JDMS wins 1:
maguari (n) the chinking compound used in Navajo hogans. 
     1 (JJ)
Pierre:   This sounds more Hopi than Navajo. IIRR there is no 'm' in Navajo.
Elliott:  YURT ALERT! YURT ALERT! YURT ALERT! Listeners are advised to take
refuge in their yurt shelters and stay tuned for further announcements.
James:    What's a hogan?
Amy:      Are hogans Navajo? <dubious>
JJ:       We know Kir builds houses, so perhaps she's familiar with varied
construction techniques, and would know a word like this. I'm trying to remember
exactly what a hogan looks like, and whether it would require chinking, but in
any case, I'll award this ONE POINT.  [Kir adds: *grin* I do and I might be,
although I’d be more likely to know about straw bale construction than hogans,
per se.] 
Linda:    But wouldn't this be adobe as well?



Linda wins 6:
maguari (n) 1. A cactus of the prickly pear family. 2. The juice of the maguari
cactus, used as a health tonic. 
     2 (David)
     2 (Aussie)
     1 (Arthur)
     1 (Fran)
Pierre:   Saguaro.
James:    "saguaro"-derived
JJ:       Finally realized what seemed to tickle my brain about thus: the
-aguar- is redolent of "saguaro". But that's not enough to tempt me.
Linda:    Originally I thought this sounded like a cocktail. 


Pierre wins 2:
maguari (n) [Guaran=ED] Either of two trogons, Baucomia maguari and B.
flavirostris, of Paraguay and Bolivia. 
     1 (Judith)
     +1 for guessing right
Aussie:   Patently claptrap!
James:    What's a trogon?  [Kir adds: I think someone should send you some
postcards from tropical countries! I think I got a trogon postcard from ... um
... Costa Rica?]
JJ:       I'll guess Pierre.
Linda:    No idea what a trogon is. Probably it. 



Jean-Joseph:
maguari (n) Payments made by a former employee to a company in order to continue
insurance coverage or other perquisites after termination. 
Aussie:   COBRA!
MyS:      The perqs practice is illegal, I believe, but...
James:    I wish this had a generic term, but suspect that there isn't one. I
just knew it as COBRA (which I may be misremembering as an acronym, hence the
all-caps). It was also known as "how to go broke fast." Fortunately, I
eventually became re-employed, after a fashion.
Linda:    Isn't that Cobra?


David: 
maguari (n) A guari in the possession of a Southerner. 
Aussie:   Ha ha.
Pierre:   Cothurnus: An entity that shares its thurnus with another.
	  Costean: To jointly control the stean.
	  What's a guari?
Elliott:  Nah, no Southerner would be caught dead possessing a guari. It's much
too effete. We just use our fingers.
James:    Yep.
Linda:    Is this a joke def?


Eric wins 2:
maguari (n) A tall Austrian wedding-cake, with white sugar icing and batter
flavored with sweet red peppers. 
     2 (Fran)
Aussie:   "Arnold and Maria's traditional maquari sent the clan panting for
drink in a manner unbefitting even the Boston Irish."
James:    That sounds good, actually. However, "maugari" sounds nothing like an
Austrian/Germanic word. (Or am I limiting myself here?)
Amy:      I might have bought it if it was Australian, but not Austrian...
JJ:       Certainly doesn't look like a German word to me.
Linda:    I have trouble imagining a cake with peppers, even in Mexico. I
suppose if there is a Spanish riding school in Vienna, that peppers would not be
out of place, either.


James wins 1:
maguari (n) A traitor in the ranks of the royal household staff. 
     1 (Elliott)
Elliott:  I like this one! I suppose it could also apply to tattletale butlers.
Is it an eponym, like a quisling?
James:    Mine. It would have sounded better with a derivation, but I didn't
have the wit to come up with one
JJ:       Hmm... I'll guess David.
Linda:    Is a quisling a traitor? Who then was Maguari? One of those tell-all
servants? Or someone who enjoyed sending the royals to the guillotine?


Fran wins 1:
maguari (n) The class of organisms which rely on geothermal energy and minerals
for their metabolic needs, rather than on solar energy or biological nutrition. 
     1 (Linda)
Aussie:   A nice idea, but not it.
Pierre:   Thermophiles.
JJ:       There are things like this. But I've never heard this word used to
describe them.
Linda:    No idea of the name of this class or whether it should be capitalized,
but I like the idea of these elusive creatures.


Online Plain Text dictionary (http://www.mso.anu.edu.au//~raplh/OPTED/ ):
maguari (n) A South American stork (Euxenara maguari), having a forked tail. 
     1 (Pierre)
     2 (Judith)
Pierre:   One point for the birds. Since it resembles my def, it's probably not
real.
Elliott:  Are there New World storks? I don't remember, but I'm skeptical.
JJ:       I do like this, but alas, I'm out of points.
Linda:    Actually, this sounds possibly like the cry of a stork. 


Aussie wins 9:
maguari (n) A spicy condiment made from a puree of the fruits of the tamarind
and cherimoya (guanabana) plants. 
     1 (David)
     2 (Arthur)
     2 (Pierre)
     2 (MyS)
     2 (Amy)
James:   Tamarind and guanabana sounds like it would be sweet, not spicy. Then
again, I'm still (three days later) in my post-Thanksgiving food coma (induced
by three desserts), so everything sounds like it would be sweet.
JJ:      Like the cactus, the etymological resemblance to guanabana isn't enough
to sway me. 
Linda:   Judith, have you been cooking with interesting yummy fruits? 


Judith wins 5:
maguari (n) A dress-like garment worn by older women in Gabon. It is usually
black or very dark blue, and has no decoration. 
     2 (James)
     1 (Linda)
     + 2 for guessing right
Aussie:  Bit hot and conservative for Gabon, isn't it? I'll give this unlikely
one one point to balance.
James:   This gets TWO POINTS from me, for its absence of biological eymology.
JJ:      Not bad, and I might have gone for it if there weren't others I liked
better.
Linda:   I think the very dark blue got to me, even though the word sounds very
Spanish, and I would suspect that the women of Gabon would use tie-die or
lighter trim. I was amazed at the prevalence of dark, usually black clothing,
among older women of Europe, so it doesn't surprise me here. 


MyS wins 3:
maguari (n) A straw made of natural sugar cane used in some alcoholic drinks.
     1 (Amy)
     2 (JJ)
Aussie:  Whew, that'll put Karo in yer hookah! Do not try this at home.
Pierre:  Before or after it's turned into bagasse?
Elliott: Dude, like a margarita bong! Two points for a clever invention.
James:   I'll have a maguarita, please.
JJ:      Does this work? Is there a way to get the stuff out of the middle so
that the liquid can pass through? Or is this just a lot of bagasse? Well, I like
it, and hereby award it TWO POINTS.
Linda:   This has a nice feel to it. Not sure you can make a straw from cane,
though.