NO! That Is Not A Typo
<twitches and looks at the Remote Nuclear Detonator> it is an hilarious pun, being a portmanteau conflation of 'Experiment' and 'Rant', which is what this particular blog item is going to be. You see, Conrad has acquired a long list of Dog Buns! outrageous Codeword solutions and - well, if there are 13 of them, and I aim to manage a 1,000 word blog, then that would mean only 76 words per definition needed to hit the total. Of course there wouldn't be room for anything else, and even the Intro would have to be short. So al we need is an enticing picture - Art!
Art has a pash for Mara Corday, I have Annette Peacock.
Let the excoriating outpouring begin!
"KOWTOW": Presumably younger readers will be unfamiliar with this word, as it refers to a custom looooong expired, but which Emperor Xi would probably like to bring back in his august presence. My Collins Concise defines it as: "To touch the forehead to the ground as a sign of deference" or formal grovelling, if you like. From the Chinese 'Ko' meaning 'To strike' and 'T'ou' meaning 'Head'. Well well, it's not often we get to define and translate a word that's neither Latin <hack spit> or Greek <hack hack spit spit>. Art!
The Kowtow or 'Chinese Bow'
"NEXUS": I know that you're thinking and no, nothing to do with the Rude & Baron comics/character, which is a pretty awesome space-opera tale inv
ANYWAY my CC defines this as "A means of connection; link; bond" and inevitably it's derived from Latin, "Nectere" meaning 'To bind'. How unfair is it to match the most commonly used letter with one of the least used? You don't often see it in print and the only time I can recall it being used is in Blue Oyster Cult's "Astronomy" in the line "It's the nexus of the crisis" and you can read what you like into it as Conrad has never understood the lyrics. Art!
ART! A Synod.
"SHAMAN": Nothing to do with fraud nor a mis-spelling of someone gender-fluid. No, this is what we in the West used to call a 'medicine-man', that being someone who practices Shamanism, a religious belief that the world abounds in good and evil spirits. These spirits can only be influenced by the shaman, making it a pretty good gig (and it probably has a closed-shop trades union too) for al their tribal members who want intercession in order to avoid lightning-strikes, athletes foot, wheat rust and crossed eyes. Not sure a shaman will cure that last one, mate, you're better off with an opthalmic surgeon. Another first in translation here at BOOJUM! because it derives from the Ruffian 'Shaman'. Art!
"ZYGOTIC": WHAT THE DOG BUNS ARE YOU PLAYING AT! <takes deep breaths> Okay, my CC has it as relating to a ZYGOTE, which is "The cell resulting from the union off an ovum and a spermatazoa". Thanks for that. And HOW UNFAIR IS THAT SOLUTION? Using two of the least-used letters RIGHT NEXT TO EACH OTHER. I'd call that a juxtaposition of junk. Bah!
Biology stuff
"MARQUESS": I know this is to do with the aristocracy, not tents. A noblewoman of a rank higher than a archimandrite but lower than an escutcheon? Okay, okay, I was making that up. According to CC "In This Sceptred Isle, a nobleman ranking between a duke and an earl; see also 'Marquis'. So I did, and a 'Marquis' still isn't a tent. It's a nobleman abroad ranking above a count, and is occasionally used as a substitute for 'Marquess'. Art!
Close wnough
"FETA": AGAIN WITH THE FOREIGN FOODSTUFFS! I ask you, a four-letter word ending in "A" - I only got this because I am hot stuff at Codewords; you, gentle reader, would have struggled. O yes, it's a cheese, originating in Greece, made from goat's milk. Why goats? Don't they have cows in Greece? <ponders musingly>.
This is getting off-topic but since when did that stop us? I just found out that Greece has a milk industry with 10 million goats, 5 million sheep and just 100,000 cows. There's a reason in there that we may come back to. Art!
"PHYLUM": AGAIN WITH THE BIOLOGY! <sighs wearily>. Conrad is aware this is part of how a species is defined (Taxonomy?) and you have a tree of different titles going down to whatever you're classifying. Aha! My CC states "A major taxonomic division of living organisms that contain one or more classes, and which is extremely unfair to include as a Codeword solution". Well, there it is in black and white YOU PIKERS! I was close enough in my definition to earn a brownie point and a chocolate-coated coffee bean. Art!
Foxy
"VOCODER": WHAT, ARE WE ALL STUDIO TECHNICIANS NOW? Conrad is more aware of what the effects produced by one of these are, than the technical description of what one is. Technically, a music synthesiser that utilises the human voice as an oscillator, and if Art will get off his wing-chair -
One of the songs that features dogs barking rather than humans is - you may be ahead of me here - 'Dogs' by Pink Floyd. I must play it within earshot of Edna and see what she makes of it. Heh!
Finally -
Well, there you go, only nine Codewords ranted about, so I have a few left for a more normal blog at a later date. Except I have a stack of Codewords to complete and DOUBTLESS there will be more unjustifiably unfair solutions to add. Also note that this is the only mention of Puffy Petrol Pimp.
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