From: bayla@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (Bayla Singer)
Subject: gleanings
Organization: Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, USA
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1992 12:17:17 GMT

I'm practicing taking stuff offline in order to save connect-time when writing 
answers: one has to write a lot, relatively, to make it worthwhile, since 
of course one uses time in downloading, uploading, and remembering which
commands work on which keyboard (and I used to think I only had *one* on
any given puter).  So, I wrote a lot. 

--bayla


1) Shamu (Evelyn)
More-or-less tame whale (dolphin?) who does tricks at a marine exhibit
resort.  Considered in the same affection-class as, say, Bambi.  

3) Lewis Mumford/Rooski butt (Ken W.)
Rooski was a fairly pejorative slang nickname for Russian, during the
late and sometimes lamented Cold and Hot wars.  So, of course, Rooski
butt was what one kicked.  Nowadays we only talk about kicking butt, 
we're *much* too poor a nation to actually *do* it (and besides, it isn't
politically correct, and I have a 21 year old son I don't want to have
shot at by <anyone else but me>, too.)  [Here's a free gleaning: NIMBY, 
meaning Not In My Backyard.  The previous parenthetical remark was an
example.]

5) To suck eggs (Rita)
Part of a proverb, "Don't try to teach your grandmother to suck eggs,"
meaning "I knew that stuff before you were born, sonny!"

6) Mashugena (Anne Hr.)
One of several possible spellings of a Yiddish word meaning 'crazy'.  
It has as many nuances as most Yiddish words -- all those accruing to
the English "equivalent", and then some.

7) GUOTF (Gilbert)
ROTFL is Rolling On The Floor Laughing, so GUOTF would be Get Up Off The
Floor.

10) Greens [Greenpeace?] (Bill S.)
Generic term for environmental groups, often used to characterize political
parties.

11) Sammich [Sandwich?] (Jenna)
Yup, Sandwich.

12) Cetaceaphages Anonymous (Carol C.)
Whales are cetaceans: the rest of the wordplay ought to be easy to
figure out. (See: Alcoholics/Overeaters/Etc Anonymous)

14) Union List of Serials/LC/NUCMC/Standard & Poors (Bayla)
Various reference tools I *used* to be able to find in even the smallest
of public libraries (except for NUCMC).  The Union List of Serials gives,
for every periodical ever published anywhere (or very close to it), the
US library or libraries in which it may be found and the issues held.  
LC is Library of Congress, and its published hardbound catalog is also
very useful.  NUCMC (pronounced nuck-muck by intimates) is the National
Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections.  NUCMC is very useful to scholars
in history, and is found in university libraries at least.  Standard and
Poors is "short" for a publication by the business-anaylsis firm of the same
name: their publication is used by investors as a source of relatively 
unbiased information.  Academics sometimes use it too -- I found much 
interesting info about the growth of electric railways there, for example.  

5) The Chocolate-Cream Soldier (Bayla)
I'm still not completely sure of the title of this play, but was counting
on the expertise of the List to supply it.  

16) Shawt Hilz (Bayla)
Ken's coinage: a phonetic rendering of Short Hills (New Jersey). He's
been complaining about the relative lack of intellectual quality there.

Oh, dear -- it's after 8 am, and it'll *cost* me to access the Net, 
since rates are at their highest now -- you can't win.  I better get
this posted, though, it'll be *way* out of date if I wait til night-
time.

--bayla
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU