BARBOLA WORK revealed!

[eLLioTT morEton]

LINDA's stark fist does barbola work on the fragile jaws of everyone else, 
with 6 points -- twice as much as the next-highest score.

Haul it away, Linda!

General comments:

Eric:  Well, the defs are all implausible, but also very similar, due to 
the "makework", "filigree work", etc., pattern for compound nouns. 
Including mine.

Nick:  So many choices, many of them in the same vein.
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barbola work (n.) -- A type of tile arrangement used by the Romans in 
their baths. There was often much decoration using colored tiles and 
fragments, plus swirled patterns.  Barbola was originally a slave captured 
off the coast of Sicily, who found favor with Augustus Caesar for his 
splendid craft.

By LINDA.  6 = David 2 + Hutch 2 + Pierre 2

Hutch:  The final sentence doesn't quite ring true for dictionary 
phrasing. But the definition is great: 2 points

Nick:  Good story, but too complicated to be in a dictionary.
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barbola work (n.) -- (colloq.)  A complicated task, "harder than 
untangling a wet beard".

By NICK.  No points.

Hutch:  NOW JUST A MINUTE!! There's nothing complicated about untangling a 
wet beard! *G*
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barbola work (n.) -- Minor tasks assigned to new workers on a ranch, to 
give the animals a chance to gradually become accustomed to their smell.

By JIM.  2 = David 1 + Nick 1

Hutch:  This doesn't happen!

Nick:  Believable, in a gross way. 1 point.
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barbola work (n.) -- Decorative work composed chiefly of flowers and fruit 
modelled in a plastic paste and colored, used to embellish small articles 
of wood, glass, pulp, etc.

THE REAL ONE.  Judith 2

Nick:  Sounds like fun!
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barbola work (n.) -- In Jacobean and Restoration drama, interludes of 
flowery and witty but inessential conversation, introduced to lengthen a 
play and, often, to allow an older work to be republished and re-presented 
as a new production.

By ERIC.  2 = Jim 2

Hutch:  Does Oscar Wilde count as "Restoration"? This describes _The 
Importance of Being Earnest_ to a tee!

Nick:  It's like double-spacing your paper to make it longer.
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barbola work (n.) -- (metallurgy) - A surface hardening technique in which 
numerous small protrusions are repeatedly extruded from the surface of the 
piece and flattened out again.  See also "shot peening".

By JEAN-JOSEPH.  3 = Judith 1 + Nick 2

Jim: Honorable mention vote for using the term "shot peening"!  Also, the 
Most Likely To Be By Nick award

Nick:  Barbs are pokey. Makes sense to me. 2 points.
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barbola work (n.) -- (obs.) Work performed by an inmate of a debtor's 
prison that does not accrue to the indebtedness, work performed by an 
indentured servant that does not reduce the indenture; substinence work.

By HUTCH.  3 = Jim 1 + Eric 2

Nick:  Hmm. Yet another good definition, but not enough points to go 
around.
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barbola work (n.) -- (boxing term, after heavyweight Emilio Barbola) to 
knock out an opponent's teeth in the boxing ring.

By DAVID.  3 = Linda 2 + Eric 1
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barbola work (n.) -- Art done with a kind of enamel that forms bubbles as 
it dries.

By PIERRE.  1 = Linda 1
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barbola work (n.) -- A "cush job", involving a high salary and 
little-to-no expenditure of energy.

By JUDITH.  2 = 0 + 2 points for correct guess

Hutch:  Hmm, almost the opposite of my fictionition (substinence work)

Nick:  Is it hard work, or easy work? We can't seem to agree.
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barbola work (n.) -- In the garment trade, decorative stitching on the 
rear pockets of a pair of pants, esp. blue jeans.  From Barbola S.p.A., an 
Italian manufacturer of automated embroidery machines from 1968 to 1973. 
Also used by industrial garment workers to refer disparagingly to 
less-demanding jobs in the factory.

By RANJIT.  2 = Hutch 1 + Pierre 1

Jim:  I'd have given this points if the date range had been more than 6 
years, but it just seems to short to spawn a term that becomes adopted, 
even in a small circles like garment work.

Hutch:  I would have thought that the decorative stitching would be among 
the MORE-demanding jobs in a jeans factory. But it's the best other one, 
so 1 point.

Nick:  I always wondered what that stuff was called.
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