Friday, November 10, 2006

Hangman

HANGMAN, n. An officer of the law charged with duties of the highest dignity and utmost gravity, and held in hereditary disesteem by a populace having a criminal ancestry. In some of the American States his functions are now performed by an electrician, as in New Jersey, where executions by electricity have recently been ordered — the first instance known to this lexicographer of anybody questioning the expediency of hanging Jerseymen.

2006 Update: The humblest servant of a pious people and shepherd to the gathering wool.

49 comments:

Minka said...

A lot of people almost got beheaded on my blog yesterday...!

Al, wanna come and play???

ok: 5 letter word...go!

Anonymous said...

Okay, okay, here are three with five...

Q-U-E-E-N
M-I-N-K-A
R-U-L-E-S

(No way I'm giving you L-O-S-E-R.)

Hangman: Doer of society's dirtywork.

(Great update on Bierce, Doug.)

Anonymous said...

Now, Minka, your Majesty, oh mighty Alpha to my pathetic Beta...

Even though Diesel's caption is better, how about hopping on over to Sar's and voting for mine?
Huh?

P-L-E-A-S (mmm, "e")?

Anonymous said...

No votes yet. Zero. Zilch. Nada. I'm starting to feel very Republican.

Which, of course, I'm not. If I were, I would have voted for myself.

Twice.

Mutha said...

A-L-I-V-E
A state one can not expect to maintain around a hangman.

The amoeba said...

HANGMAN, n. Martyr maker. See, e.g., BROWN, JOHN; HUSSEIN, SADDAM.

If Hussein must be hanged, I hope they get a more competent hangman than John C. Woods, in charge at Nuremberg. Most of his victims died of strangulation, rather than by broken necks. You think we got problems now ...

Indeterminacy said...

In the future everyone will be their own hangman for 15 minutes.

Sar said...

Dude, wanna come hang man?

The Bellagio fountain has been transformed into a giant bubble bath at my place and the champagne fountain's more than a little precarious at the moment. TLP & Minka, did I mention the chocolate fountain?

Minka said...

al, I actaully had "Loser" in my mind, then I thought of "First". But I like your choices, too. I like how you accept defeat!

sar, did you say chocola..............

mireille said...

Symbol in Tarot ... if only I could remember the meaning. I think it has something to do with serenity in the face of adversity. xoxo

Miz BoheMia said...

Hangman... at least it ain't a woman so phew! And double phew porque ya está! Domingo Schmomingo! Hpmh! :-)

G said...

It's words like these that aroused my suspicions about you.

Hangman: Well if you give him enough rope, he'll hang himself and perhaps the laundry at the same time.

Can we wish you a Happy Almost Birthday here? No? That's what CENTRAL SNARK was set up for? Okay.

G said...

Oh THAT CENTRAL SNARK!

Anonymous said...

g: hah! you are shameless *and* diligent, 2 of of the many things i love about you! oh, and i think it's fine that you *almost* got it right the first time, after all, it's an *almost* birthday party we're having over there, right??

Anonymous said...

Hangman: An effete little servant of the judicial class.

(really I just wanted to use that word eff...)

Kyahgirl said...

Hangman-the last Canadian hangman did his work here in our little town, in the year of my birth. What's up with that?

oh, and a game we played for endless hours on the chalkboard on the kitchen wall. I I killed my brother more times than I can count!

Anonymous said...

Kyah - do you believe in reincarnation? Have you been fighting any homicidal urges lately?

Minka said...

Seriously guys, if you want to move with the times, you have to go: HERE!

*runs*

We are so gonna burn in hell for this one, but I have always been selective about the company I keep :)

Kyahgirl said...

Al, of course I've had homicidal urges lately :-) Didn't we just discuss shotguns recently?

Minka, you're shameless. Just the kind of friend a curmudgeon needs. Keep up the good work!

Anonymous said...

Kyah! Ah HA! I thought so! Smart, those Hindus.

And, re: your claim to have killed your brother more times than you can count. Not "kill" kill, right? We don't have to call the Mounties in on this, do we?

:-)

Anonymous said...

Hangman: minister and/or justice of the peace.


(i'm SO hoping my husband will disagree...)

Anonymous said...

hang-man: a small piece of detached humanity at the side or base of the human race.

G said...

Yes I am Snuppy - both shamlessly diligent, but mostly diligently shameless. How gently you let me off the hook - that's why you're my NBFF!

What's all this talk about captions by the way? Seems we have a few finalists right here in our midst over at Sar's. Let me go check as she did mention a Party!

Doug The Una said...

Minka, I knew you'd be first to the scaffold. I don't think Al knows how to play. I guess "O"

Al, SUCK-UP, n. Doer of high society's dirty work.

I think your shameless self-promotion would go better with your own blog to sob from.

Mutha, I've made a practice of staying in towns with the least competent executioners. You can win if you know how to play the game.

O Ceallaigh, that's a good one. I have to say John Brown is kind of a hero to me so it's tough seeing his name next to Saddam's but the point is apt.

Indie, that's beyond brilliant. I may put that on my wall. Or crypt.

Sar, I've been by. You throw a first rate bash.

Minka, don't miss out.

Mireille, I think it foretells hypoxia.

Hermana, siempre puntual.

g, sometimes they come back. That Central Snark, indeed!

Right-o, Snup.

Mule, effete is one of the few words in English not used often enough.

Sure, Kyah. I'd have trouble with desoxyribonucleic too, at ten.

Al, funny you should ask that.

Minka, I think you'll find the company suits you where you're going. The weather may be a shock, though.

Kyah, you both are.

Al, it was just one little boy. No need to make a federal case.

Puppy, that's so right!

O Ceallaigh, I remember that. And tin foil. And snow on the screen.

The base, usually, Joel. Which becomes the apex when the work is done.

Anonymous said...

Am I the only person high on life today? Hangman be damned

Doug, here's to an honest fight, a good and worthy one in 08

Here I am, political to the end :-)

And ran into an old lover for the first time in two decades last night---and lived :-)

Hangman: We don't have one. Democrats don't believe in such things. Not that I'm really a Democrat, but...

TLP said...

I had to censor myself today. You'll just have to guess what I would have written.

The amoeba said...

Ah, Doug, I don't quite mean to demean John Brown, but heroes tend to tarnish badly when exposed to too much light. James McPherson does a good job at the exposure. Apparently Brown never was much good at working. Breeding was another matter - twenty kids (yes, that said twenty, 20).

In a late letter to his wife Mary, Brown wrote:

"I have been whipped, as they say, but I am sure that I can recover all the lost capital by only hanging a few moments by the neck."

He was right. Though he was probably thinking at least as much about the unpaid credit card bills. What Mary was thinking can only be imagined - though perhaps she finally got some uninterrupted sleep.

:)

Omnipotent Poobah said...

hangman - That guy standing slightly to the left and behind Saddam.

Mutha said...

Is being "whipped" the same as being "thumped"? Lets ask George...

Doug The Una said...

Pia, was he surprised you're still crazy after all these years? Paul Simon reference

TLP, you never have to censor yourself. And rarely do. Come on back.

Not at all, O Ceallaigh. If you haven't, by the way, Cloudsplitter by Russel Banks is a great novel about Brown. The cover photo was taken about a mile from where I'm typing.

Poobah, he should wipe his mouth, shouldn't he?

Not in my book, Mutha.

robkroese said...

A social pariah responsible for administering a particularly gruesome form of execution.

Also, a fun children's game.

Charlene Amsden said...

Hangman (2000)
Genre: Thriller
Duration: 1 hr. 35 min.
Starring: Lou Diamond Phillips, Madchen Amick, Dan Lauria,
Director: Ken Girotti
Producer: Marc Bienstock, Peter Emerson
Writer: Vladimir Nemirovsky

Acclaimed by critics everywhere -- as the worst serial killer movie ever made.

Mo'a said...

I think we will all Hang Man, when Doug finds out what is going on at CS....Oooooo!!!!

Doug The Una said...

Diesel, once I'd have appreciated the irony.

See, Quill, I had no idea. I thought I'd seen all the bad ones.

Mo'a I've been there. I'm Walela on that site. You are all acquitted by reason of cuteness.

Mo'a said...

Oh, Good!!! I resemble that remark :) An have a happy one.

TLP said...

Even if I was gonna say, How's it hanging,man? Now, that's just tasteless. So I'll feel all hangdog about it.

Anonymous said...

Hangman: the one who pulls the R.I.P cord.

Charlene Amsden said...

Oh! Puppy, that was good! I am so thinking of joining your fan club. You impress me everyday!

Doug The Una said...

You do, Mo'a. Have a great weekend.

TLP, would you feel better if I responded with "Who said anything about hanging?"

Puppybrose, that was brilliant.

Quill, can I be secretary/treasurer?

Charlene Amsden said...

Doug, I don't know? You mean you aren't already an officer? I thought I was coming in late and would just be at the end of a long list of peons.

Puppy, whose pres. and when is the next vote for officers?

Oh, and Doug -- I am never late, yet here I still sit. I believe I shall blame it on you. Unless that spa affected me more than I thought.

Just Tom said...

Wasn't that a song by Soundgarden?

No, wait, that was Spoonman.

Hangman, a male guest that will not leave?

BTW my challenge is up. I think this one might be right down your alley this time, Doug.

come one, come all.

Anonymous said...

I'm definitely hung up on this one--nothing to say. It's becoming a habit. Nice update!

tsduff said...

If you violate Nature's laws you are your own prosecuting attorney, judge, jury, and hangman.
Luther Burbank

I have little to say about the hangman - tough job.

TLP said...

No.

Anonymous said...

Hangman: I don't know. I came in so late I can't say anything any wittier or more original.

But I did come by...

Hi!

Alana said...

Um...

E?

Anonymous said...

Oh, I didn't know that's what we were doing...

X?

Charlene Amsden said...

.

Q

Cie Cheesemeister said...

Hangman: a game played on a long drive by people who don't have one of those video players in their car.