"wanlace" cleared for lift-off

[William Quale]

On Wed, 11 Jan 2006, eLLioTT morEton wrote:
> My first encounter with "fob" was in _Gulliver's Travels_, where it is
> used to mean "watch pocket".  I'm surprised to learn that it can mean
> "watch chain"!

And I thought it had yet a third related meaning--the decorative object at
the end of the watch chain.  Maybe not all watch chains have one, but
mine goes from watch (in the fob-pocket) down and up in a parabola to
attach via a reverse button-like-pin through a waistcoat pocket at a
slightly higher height than the fob-pocket, and then an additional three
inches of chain hangs straight down ending in what I have always called
the watch "fob".  In my case, it's an ornate medallion which is engraved
as a second-place prize in a Scottish dog show from the late nineteenth
century, and I'm guessing the entire watch chain and ?fob was the prize.
(The chain does not match my watch, which is an 1880s Waltham from
Massachusetts, the sort with a flip-up protective cover.)

--Will

 quale at quale.org	http://www.quale.org/

"i've gone to sweep cobwebs beyond the sky, but i'll be back by and by."