[Fictionary] LOVAT results

lindafowens at netzero.net lindafowens at netzero.net
Fri Apr 17 16:12:04 EDT 2020


When I was in the RI Weavers' Guild, many years ago, I came across a lot of unusual names for various and ancient fiber dyes.  I can just imagine Mr. Darcy in his lovat-colored tweed jacket riding off to visit Miss Elizabeth Bennett In Lambton.  But I never actually remember that dye name.  LInda

---------- Original Message ----------
From: Ranjit Bhatnagar <ranjit at moonmilk.com>
To: fictionary <fictionary at swarpa.net>
Subject: Re: [Fictionary] LOVAT results
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 2020 10:12:50 -0400


Ah, as Ziv is new, I think they ought to jump into the lovat and run a round of fictionary! (Unless you don't want to!) - r  
On Thu, Apr 16, 2020 at 10:11 AM Jim Moskowitz <jim at jimmosk.com> wrote:And see, already I found a math mistake! (I proofread twice, but should have given it a third go.)
 
 â&euro;&rdquo;> Ziv also has six points, and is also tied for the lead! I think he and Ranjit ought to discuss which of them gets to run the next round.
 
 
 
 > On Apr 16, 2020, at 10:04 AM, Jim Moskowitz <jim at jimmosk.com> wrote:
 > 
 > Itâ&euro;&trade;s time to reveal who wrote what, who voted for what, and who gets to run our next round!
 > 
 > 
 > lovat - n. - an albino vixen.   DAVID
 >   David: Tom Wolfe would use this as a stole to accompany his white suit.  I know, it's my own definition. Just sayin'.
 >Â  Â Jean-Joseph: OK, invoking the arbitrary "no organisms" ruleâ&euro;¦
 >   Joe: I love the idea that there would be a word for this, but it seems like too much of a special case.  Or are vixens particularly prone to albinism?
 >Â  2 points for correct voting!
 > 
 > 
 > lovat - n. - a tightly bound bale.   NICK
 >Â  Â Jean-Joseph: 1 point â&euro;&rdquo; Ordinary enough for One point.
 >Â  Â Helen: 1 point - It's such an elegant definition, like a line of poetry.
 >Â  Â Ranjit: 1 point
 >Â  Â Liz: 1 point
 > 
 > 
 > lovat - n. - a tool for cleaning Kalman filters.  JEAN-JOSEPH
 >Â  Â Jean-Joseph: Mine, let's see how many people get this math joke.
 >   Elliott: 2 points â&euro;&rdquo; ... using Von Neumann whitening, of course.  Two points for funny.  (Is this secretly vowel harmony def #3, because Kalman is a Hungarian name?)
 >Â  Â Pierre: Isn't that a DSP thing? How can you clean a DSP filter?
 >Â  Â Ranjit: Yeah, they need a linting now and then.
 >Â  Â Eric: Heh! :-) I'm sure all the signal processing engineers are amused? I don't remember exactly what one is, but I'm pretty certain you don't clean it with a brush.
 >Â  Â Plus 1 point for correct voting!
 > 
 > 
 > lovat - n. - a refrigerated van or small refrigerated truck.  RANJIT
 >Â  Â Jean-Joseph: 2 points â&euro;&rdquo; One of the definitions left standing: Two points.
 >Â  Â Eric: 2 points â&euro;&rdquo; Just boring enough to get my vote. Two points!
 >Â  Â Fran: 1 point
 >Â  Â Ziv: 1 point
 > 
 > 
 > lovat - n. - a small warbler with a reddish stripe on its rump.    LINDA
 >Â  Â Ranjit: 1 point â&euro;&rdquo; I will give a point to almost anything with a reddish stripe on its rump. 1 point.
 >Â  Â Jean-Joseph: Organism.
 >Â  Â Eric: Nope. No birds.
 >Â  Â Plus 2 points for correct voting!
 > 
 > 
 > lovat - n. - a Mongolian meat stew simmered with onions and spices.  HELEN
 >Â  Â Pierre: 2 points
 >Â  Â Hutch: 1 point â&euro;&rdquo; Similar to the Hungarian word, it feels like it could be Mongolian as well ... mostly because I don't know any Mongolian, I suspect. 1 point
 >   Joe: 1 point â&euro;&rdquo; Yum!  
 >Â  Â Jean-Joseph: Since we have some new players this round, I guess it's appropriate that somebody submitted a definition for something prepared in a yurt. It's been a while!
 >Â  Â Elliott: Vowel harmony def #1.
 >Â  Â Eric: My new plan is to never vote for any Mongolian definition, Mongolian has only one word and that word is "yurt".
 > 
 > 
 > lovat - n. - a muted green color used especially in tweed and woolen garments.  OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS [i.e., the real definition]
 >Â  Â Linda: 2 points
 >Â  Â Liz: 2 points
 >Â  Â David: 2 points â&euro;&rdquo; and the Lord Lovat Award.
 >Â  Â Jean-Joseph: 1 point â&euro;&rdquo; I like this, not enough to really believe it or to give it full score, but I will award it One point.
 >Â  Â Joe: 1 point, because this somehow sounds more plausible than my remaining candidates?
 >Â  Â Ziv: 1 point
 >Â  Â Eric: 1 point â&euro;&rdquo; I hate it already. One point.
 > 
 > 
 > lovat - n. - a cushioned bar in front of a church pew for kneeling during prayer.   JOE
 >Â  Â Linda: 1 point
 >Â  Â Pierre: I've used this, and I've never heard anyone call it a lovat.
 >Â  Â Jean-Joseph: We always just called this a "kneeler".
 >Â  Â Hutch: Just a "kneeler" isn't it?
 >   Ziv: Honorable mention for this one for me. Feels like something that ought to have a weird and obscure name, but I'd think it would be something more latin-y sounding.    
 >Â  Â Plus 1 point for correct voting!
 > 
 > 
 > lovat - n. - an annual medicinal herb native to the Mediterranean region, also known as moonflower.   LIZ
 >Â  Â Pierre: 1 point
 >Â  Â Hutch: Okay, 1 point 
 >Â  Â Helen: 1 point - When in doubt, it's probably either a bird or an herb. I'll go with the herb.
 >Â  Â Jean-Joseph: Organism.
 >Â  Â Plus 2 points for correct voting!
 > 
 > 
 > lovat - n., pl. lovatok - a Hungarian equestrian competition judged on style and skill rather than speed.   PIERRE
 >Â  Â Hutch: 2 points â&euro;&rdquo; Pretty sure that basically all "equestrian" competitions are judged on style and skill; speed is always merely a tie-breaker. If speed is the primary factor in determining the winner, the competition is referred to as a "race". Nonetheless, somehow this feels right, as an eastern European word. 2 points
 >   Elliott: 1 point â&euro;&rdquo; Vowel harmony def #2.  "Rather than speed" doesn't sound like it belongs in a definition, somehow.  One point.
 >Â  Â Jean-Joseph: That does look like the way you might form a plural in Hungarian (ex. lake = to, lakes = tavak). But that also makes it a bit too foreign to likely be a word that you'd pick.
 >Â  Â Ziv: My linguist senses are tingling for this one---I believe you that this could be a Hungarian word. But I can't imagine the Hungarian plural making it into English usage... 
 > 
 > 
 > lovat - n. - an object or device from which a swung sledgehammer can rebound so as to strike something from below.  ELLIOTT
 >   Elliott: How do you hammer upwards?  You might be mining, or driving nails into a wooden ship's hull; how do you do it?  Do you bounce it off something, like an anvil, or a little trampoline?  Do you use a hydraulic device where you bash down on one side of a U and a piston shoots up on the other side?
 >Â  Helen: 2 points - If this does exist, why shouldn't it be called a lovat? And if it doesn't exist, it should. I've watched enough Vermont timber-framers almost kill themselves using sledge hammers and chainsaws from below. Some quite dear to me. Though I can't really see this working for a chainsaw.
 >Â  Â Ziv: 2 points
 >Â  Â Fran: 1 point
 >Â  Â David: 1 point, and the Swing Low Sweet Sledgehammer Award 
 >Â  Â Jean-Joseph: No. No. This sounds like such a bad idea. Like a trampoline for a sledgehammer (but presumably made of solid iron or something)? If it's going to retain enough energy to do anything useful on the way back up, it's going to be an invitation for somebody to get hurt. So hard to control.
 >   Joe: I am imagining all the injuries that would happen from improper use of such a device.  Ouch.
 > 
 > 
 > lovat - n. - fertilizer made from a mixture of cattle manure, horse manure, sheep manure, chicken manure, and straw.   FRAN
 >Â  Â Pierre: 1 point
 >Â  Â Liz: 1 point
 >Â  Â Eric: 1 point â&euro;&rdquo; I usually add shallots and dill. One point.
 >Â  Â David: 1 point, and the Duke's Mixture Award 
 >Â  Â Jean-Joseph: Huh. Some benefit to the particular mixture? I can easily picture fertilizer that's made form whatever manure is available, but I'm not so sure about a custom blend.
 > 
 > 
 > lovat - n. - where a bay or bow window is built over a portico, the trim extending from the portico roof to the part-wall below the window.   ERIC
 >   Ranjit: 2 points â&euro;&rdquo; i like excessively technical details.  
 >Â  Â Jean-Joseph: I'm having trouble even picturing what this would look like.
 >Â  Â Helen: You would certainly need a lovat to build something like this. 
 >Â  Â Plus 1 point for correct voting!
 > 
 > 
 > LOVAT - n. - LOw VAntage Training (U.S. Army) : military exercises simulating combat where soldiers must remain close to the ground, e.g. bombardment drills.   ZIV
 >Â  Â Fran: 2 points
 >Â  Â Joe: 2 points; This sounds plausible, so whoever came up with this deserves my 2 points.
 >Â  Â Jean-Joseph: Nah.
 >   Elliott: Sounds plausible to me, but the word was given to us in all lower-case letters, and I don't think the roundmeister would have done that if the real def was all caps.  One point.  [Jimâ&euro;&trade;s note: Actually, Iâ&euro;&trade;m pretty sure I always put the word in all-caps, to leave its actual capitalization ambiguous.]
 >Â  Â Plus 1 point for correct voting!
 > 
 > 
 > Overall/general comments
 >Â  Â Jean-Joseph: Oh man, it's easier when none of the definitions seem plausible than when it's like this and most of them do.
 >Â  Â Fran:Â  I did not find 3 defs I wanted to give points to. However...
 >Â  Â Elliott: Many of these defs are vaguely plausible, but not outstandingly so, leaving me with no easy choices.
 > 
 > 
 > 
 > AND THE WINNER ISâ&euro;¦ well, actually the most points (10) went to the correct definition, so I didnâ&euro;&trade;t do a stealthy enough job.  But in second place, with 6 points, is a tie between Ranjitâ&euro;&trade;s refrigerated truck and Elliottâ&euro;&trade;s sledgehammer trampoline.  As a tiebreaker Iâ&euro;&trade;ll point out that Elliott ran a round recently, so I think that Ranjit should get to run the next one. But congratulations to you both, and to everyone for participating! We now return you to your physical distancing already in progress.
 > 
 > -Jim
 > 
 > 
 > P.S. Because thereâ&euro;&trade;s always the chance that I missed or miscounted something, please let me know if you think we actually have a different winner.
 
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