The winner

[Hutch]

On 10/7/06, Fran Poodry <fpoodry at speakeasy.net> wrote:
[snippety]
> guiver -n.-  A waxed, curled moustache, with points protruding away from the
> wearer's face and up into his field of vision, used to find the range in a
> duel.
> -Elliott, 0 points
> Known to the disrespectful as "lip antlers". -Elliott
> What a hilarious concept! But no points -Hutch
> LOL! - Pierre
> "What? How dare you slap me in the face with a glove!  I shall meet you in
> the morning, sir!  But first, I must make an appointment for this evening
> with my stylist to get my moustache calibrated!" I actually have no idea how
> shooting duels worked.  Seems like it shouldn't be very hard to nail
> somebody at that range (although perhaps the weapons were flaky), and I
> don't understand the protocol governing when you can shoot -- ten quick,
> small steps would permit you to turn first and get well aimed before your
> opponent turns (I'm assuming you can't shoot him in the back).  I suppose
> it's just one step away from Russian Roulette.  Wikipedia suggests that the
> rules varied, but in many of cases, both parties intentionally missed, and
> honor was restored.  In any case, I think some kind of gunsight would be a
> better idea than a weird moustache. - Jean-Joseph

Many years ago, I had the opportunity to fire a modern replica of a
17th Century (16th? 18th? No idea: it was about 25 years ago) dueling
pistol. We were using the body outline-type targets and I managed,
from a distance of about 10 meters (a reasonable facsimile of "take 10
paces, turn, and fire), to hit the PAPER twice of five shots: one of
them was in the "body" of the target. The owner of the weapon
demonstrated that she could, fairly reliably, hit the paper of the
target three out of five times at the same range and all three times
she did so, two of the three hit the "body".

We are talking about a single-shot weapon that required about 3-5
minutes for an expert (the owner) the load and fire. I suspect that
Wikipedia's usage of "intentionally" may be understating the case. I
suspect that, as firearms became more accurate (and less liable to
blow up in one's hand :-) that may have become more the case, perhaps
depending on one's actual degree of emotion in calling for the duel.
[snip]
> guiver -v.-  [falconry] To spiral inwards; compare guiser and gyre.
> -Hutch, 1 point
> This word made me think of falconry too.  is there some birdy wordy that
> sounds like "guiver" that I know subconsciously? so: 1 pt! - Ranjit
> I *think* "gyre" was coined by Lewis Carroll (in "Jabberwocky"), and isn't a
> real word. - Jean-Joseph

I hoped SOMEONE would recognize the Carroll quote *LOL*

Amusingly, while it is not a "traditional" falconry term, it *is*
fairly well-accepted among falconers and bird-watchers: not well-known
or common, but instantly understood and accepted when used.
[snip]
> guiver -n.-  In feudal England, a document exempting a man from some kind of
> service to his lord.
> -Pierre, 5 points
> 2 points from Nick
> 1 point from Judith
> If I had any more points, they'd go here. - Hutch
> Generic medieval definition. - Jean-Joseph
> Ahhhh, now this one looks good, despite the non-dictionary wording.  I can
> see "guiver"/"waiver" being a pair like "guarantee"/"warranty", or
> "guard"/"ward".  Romance words turn up in law all the time.  Two points!
> -Elliott

Excellent reasoning, Elliott! ... er ...
[snippety]
> guiver -n.-  A two-handled spade.
> -Ranjit, 3 points
> (2 points for correct guess)
> ... and this one second best: 1 point - Hutch
> Heh. I like this. Wondering whether the handles are parallel, so that two people
> standing very close together use it in synchrony, or if it's like a two-man saw,
> with handles on opposite sides, so they can have a tug-o-war over a shovelful of
> dirt. Or maybe it's two interchangeable handles, like, a casual one, and another
> for formal evening wear. - Jean-Joseph
> I also had fun imagining this. I was thinking along the lines of the opposite-end
> handles: the spade would be unusable and I thought that would be very funny:
> Hand it to your daughter¹s suitor and say, "before you can marry my daughter
> you must use this spade to dig an Olympic-size swimming pool for her!" hee
> hee hee. -Fran

OMG! I did *not* think about this one before voting for it. Didn't
read it carefully enough, I guess. I guess it would have to be J-J's
parallel handles. I think this would have them facing one another, so
it would require a right-handed person for one handle and a southpaw
for the other.
[snip]
> From Jean-Joseph:
> Well, some unsophisticated Googling turned up very little on this, in part
> because the results were dominated by hits where "Guiver" is a surname.
> Although there is some weird math usage at
> http://www.springerlink.com/content/np6214xn01w467wj/

"The modules in any component of the AR-guiver of a wild hereditary
artin algebra are uniquely determined by their composition factors"

A "wild hereditary artin algebra"? We must tame the algebra to our
whip, use it to pull our plows and power our cities.

I have no idea why this makes me obscurely sad.

> and an ever weirder slang usage (not for the squeamish) at
> http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Doing+a+Guiver

Not for the squeamish, indeed! Ooogies!

BB,
Hutch

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