[Fictionary] POLYNYA Revealed

[Jean-Joseph Cote]

First things first:
EVERYBODY STOP SENDING MESSAGES TO PLOVER.COM!
I'm pretty convinced that the swarpa server is working properly for 
all.  In fact, maybe MJD should just shut down fictionary at plover.com at 
this point.
> polynya - n. - [pl. polynyae] (Harper's, 1884) - A female admirer who
> follows a candidate on the campaign trail.
> Source: J-J Coté
> 1
> 	David Randall: 1
> 	eLLioTT morEton: Damn, can't remember who was running in 1884.  Must
> have been two Gilded Age guys anyway, and who would follow *them*?
>   
Cleveland v. Blaine.  This was when Cleveland won his first term, and he 
was still single during the campaign, so he might have had groupies, 
though the 21-year-old girl whom he married (in a White House ceremony) 
a couple of years later (when Grover was pushing 60, if I'm doing the 
math right) apparently didn't meet him until he was in office.  There 
were also a couple of other Democrats running who don't have spouses 
listed in their Wikipedia entries.  (There's nothing keeping female 
admirers from following a married candidate around, of course.  Although 
some of them don't look like they were probably very appealing.)

I asked the Russian woman who works across the hall if she knew the word 
"polynya", and she nodded, and came up with "stagnant water" as a 
definition.  But she did not know "sastruga" (which dates back quite a 
long time in fictionary).

My initial familiarity with Baba Yaga comes from Mussorgsky's "Pictures 
at an Exhibition".  Or more accurately, Emerson Lake & Palmer's 
interpretation of it.  I'm pretty sure Mussorgsky subtitled that piece 
"The Hut on Fowl's Legs", but the painting on the inside of the ELP 
album cover just depicts a birdhouse on a pole.  Intriguingly, said 
birdhouse seems to be located on the plain where the Tarkus carries out 
his rampage on the next album cover.  (Hmm, I think I've lost everyone's 
interest.  Am I really the only one here intrigued by the imagery on the 
albums covers of a bombastic 1970s art-rock trio?)

Jean-Joseph