FIRST, THE RESULTS:<br><br>Jean-Joseph's soggy Belgian beet takes the round, with 6 points; Jacob's fondue was a close second at 5 points, and the bat was the real reremouse all along!<br><br><br>THE LOST DEF, FROM ERIC: <br>
reremouse, v. In bezique, to remove a card from a common marriage or
royal marriage and incorporate it into a different meld. n. Any such
move.<br><br>I'm sorry, Eric - somehow I lost your definition while assembling the ballot.<br><br><br>THE JOKE DEFS, FROM NORA<br>reremouse: to attach a mouse back onto a laptop after it has been removed twice.<br>reremouse: to humanely capture and let go of the same stupid mouse over and over again!<br>
<br><br>AND NOW THE VOTES!<br><br><br>DICTIONARY: 2 points<br>reremouse - n - an archaic or dialect word for bat [Old English hrēremūs, probably from hrēran "to move" + mūs "mouse"] <br><br>David - 1 point: Elliottic.<br>
Pierre - 1 point: One point, as I know several words for "bat" related to "mouse", but not this<br>
one.<br>Elliott - The non-ASCII characters are showing up as question marks in my mail
reader, but I'm guessing that OE ``mouse'' would have been m?s rather
than m??s.<br>Ranjit - In case anyone else has the problem with funny characters: [Old English
hreremus, probably from hreran "to move" + mus "mouse"] Somehow the u
with a line over it turned into TWO question marks.<br>Elliott again - So apparently a vowel with a macron over it shows up in my mailreader as
two question marks rather than one. Bummer! I guess that makes
sense, if the reader is expecting 8 bits per character and the source
character is 16 bits wide.<br>Jean-Joseph - I don't want to vote for mouse definitions.<br><br><br>NORA:<br>reremouse n. a device used to deliver poison deep into crevices where rodent nests are known or suspected of being.<br>
<br>Elliott - More details, please!<br>Jean-Joseph - I still don't want to vote for mouse definitions.<br><br><br>JIM M: 2 points<br>reremouse - n. - 1. Extreme concern over the well-being of another. 2. Obsession.<br>
<br>Jean-Joseph - 2 points: By elimination, I'll give this the two-points vote. Because it's slightly more boring.<br>Elliott - REMORSE?<br><br><br>JACOB: 5 points<br>reremouse (n.) a form of fondue popular in Bretagne, believed to be the inspiration for Welsh rarebit.<br>
<br>Jim - 2 points<br>Elliott - 2 points: Food defs are inherently implausible to me, but everything else on this
ballot is even more implausible. The Breton-Welsh Celtic connection is
vaguely reassuring. Two points.<br>Hutch - 1 point<br>Jean-Joseph - 1 point: Also by elimination, this gets the single-pointer.<br><br><br><br>ELLIOTT: 1 point<br>reremouse (n.) -- A magic portal to a world that is even more mundane than the one you already live in.<br>
<br>Linda - 1 point for the magic portal to an even more mundane world, which is almost ridiculous,
as my world is seldom mundane, because it is a bit oddball: outdoor
animals, indoor cats, beautiful grounds, songbirds, with lousy weather
and too many deer ticks and weeds, loving husband who works too much but
at least he's not underfoot, wonderful beaches, woods, all in a tiny
state with loads of amenities and lousy government, too much traffic,
etc. A wonderful life with glitches. I also have a nice selection of
movies on DVD and videotape, which keep me entertained through this
pinched nerve/herniated disk/sciatica or whatever it is until the PT
fixes it all up.<br>Elliott - A definition in search of a name, and along came ``<span class="il">reremouse</span>''. The resemblance to ``reredorter'' clinched the deal.<br>David - Heh.<br>Jean-Joseph - So if you're hanging out in Narnia, and you head for the lamppost in
order to get back to the wardrobe, I suppose that would qualify. Or
maybe by the "grass is greener" principle, there can be no such thing.
Although in the His Dark Materials books, I guess the subtle knife
could cut you into some pretty boring places. And it always seemed to.
I hated those books.<br><br><br><br>JEAN-JOSEPH: 6 points<br>Reremouse is a member of the beet family, whose sweet-tasting leaves serve as an excellent complement to more bitter greens in a salad. It thrives in cool, damp growing conditions, and is especially popular in the cuisine of the French-speaking region of Belgium.<br>
<br>Jean-Joseph - This one is mine, unlikely to get any votes, but I felt like going for a
description that looks like it comes from a cookbook or something
rather than going for dictionary style.<br>Hutch - 2 points<br>Pierre - 2 points: Two points for the goose's two feet. Do any of you know two members of the<br>
family that both end in "ach"?<br>Nora - 1 point: I know how much you love beets, so this is my number two choice with one vote. Now I want a <span class="il">reremouse</span> salad! :)<br>Elliot - 1 point: Being a food def, this is plausible only in comparison to the rest of the ballot. One point.<br>
Jean-Joseph, later - Google sez: old bat, hmph.<br><br><br><br>LINDA: 2 1/2 points<br>reremouse, adj. prone to backward thinking. Linda<br><br>David - 2 points, because you left her name on!<br>Nora - 1/2 a vote because I would have given it serious consideration and an honorable mention. :)<br>
Jean-Joseph - Well, I can rule this one out...<br>Ranjit - sorry about that, Linda!<br><br><br><br>HUTCH: 3 points<br>reremouse - n. - (occ. rere mouse) a railroad handcart (fr Maori rere moza, railroad + man [="human-powered railroad"])<br>
<br>Linda - 2 points for the Maori handcart, as NZ sounds great right about now (still cold and snowy here in RI)<br>Jim - 1 point<br>Elliott - IIRC Maori's rather frugal consonant inventory doesn't include [z].<br>
Elliott, later - In fact, not only does Maori lack [z], it doesn't even have [s], which is normally a prerequisite.<br>Pierre - There is no Z, X, J, or drum in Maori, and I guess the word for "man" is something like "tau" (I once saw "tau" and "hahine" together on a linguistic competency test). Z and J both exist in its distant relative Malagasy.<br>
Jean-Joseph - Yeah, easy to imagine the Maori having a compact word for "railroad" --
not. One of the few words that I do know in Maori is "puha", which
means "white man", particularly in a menu context, alongside "pakeha"
meaning potatoes. Or else it's the other way around.<br><br><br>DAVID: 3 points - 2 + 1 point for correct guess <br>reremouse - n. - thick hair on the tops of one's shoulders<br><br>Nora - 2 points: Two votes! So hilarious, that I had to gasp. Not sure it's the right one, but it was too funny not to pass up!<br>
Elliott - Like hobbit feet, only for arms. Maybe this is part of a
cheap-alien-costume schema a la _Star Trek_ --- non-human races are
distinguished by thick hair on different body parts.<br>Jean-Joseph - Lovely. What do you call it when it's behind the knees?<br><br><br>PIERRE: 1 point for correct guess<br>reremouse, n. An unidentified bird reported by Capt. John Hawkins in Cartagena, Colombia.<br>
<br>Elliott - Was that the kid in _Treasure Island_?<br>Elliott again - The kid in _Treasure Island_ was *Jack* Hawkins. Wikipedia says there
was an Admiral John Hawkins who was the ``chief architect of the
Elizabethan navy'' in more ways than one. He also invented the triangle
trade (goods-slaves-rum). I hope Stevenson didn't name young Jack
after old John.<br>Jean-Joseph - If it's unidentified, how does it come to have a name?<br><br><br><br>