There's a guy who's been awake since the Second World War

[venta]

Today's word from The Calendar is great:

pitchkettled

meaning puzzled. I have no idea why, but I like it.

It also says:

"On this date in 1944, as the Allies prepared to invade France at Normandy, a minor detail in a London Daily Telegraph crossword puzzle raised considerable alarm among the military brass. During the preceding month, the puzzle had contained code words the invasion planners had been using, including Omaha, mulberry, Neptune and Utah. On June 2, overlord, the word secretly asssigned to the entire massive assault, appeared as a solution to "eleven across" from the previous day. British inteligence officers quickly arrested Leonard Dawe, a physics teacher and twenty-year veteran crossword puzzle writer for the news-paper, but they quickly determined that this was simply an amazing coincidence rather than an act of espionage."

Comments

[beckyl.livejournal.com]

I'd actually heard this one before in some documentary ages ago - although I can't remember whether the documentary was on espionage, D-Day or crosswords thoughout history.

[maviscruet.livejournal.com]

The guy that's been awake sounds cool.... does he have to rest.... is he just really really wired on drugs..... is he now massivly cranky?

In short, tell me more!

[wimble.livejournal.com]

I have no idea why, but I like it.

'cos you're a purveyor of the bizarre.
That was easy.

As opposed to a perveyor of a bazaar, of course. Which probably involves selling hobbits.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Er, I was quoting lyrics from the song I was listening to :)

(Who Needs Sleep (http://www.fishertowne.com/Barenaked/Lyrics/Lyrics.cfm?Album_Id=5&Lyric_Id=50) by the Barenaked Ladies.)

I believe there are people with forms of insomnia who rest but never really sleep, though. I'm sure the Barenaked Ladies wouldn't lie to me.

[venta.livejournal.com]

I meant I had no idea why it meant that :)

It's a strange and unusual word, of course I like it.

[wimble.livejournal.com]

The OED defines it with:

A large vessel in which pitch is boiled or heated, esp. for use on board ship. Hence pitch-kettled a. (Obs. slang), utterly puzzled, non-plussed (? as if covered with a pitch-kettle, or with heated pitch from a pitch-kettle).

1486 Naval Acc. Hen. VII (1896) 15 A pitch ketle..for the same Ship. 1719 DE FOE Crusoe (1840) II. xii. 249, I..bade him heat another pitch-kettle. 1754 COWPER Ep. to Lloyd 32 Thus, the preliminaries settled I fairly find myself pitch-kettled. 1876 M. COLLINS From Midnight to Midn. III. vii. 92 He was just as thoroughly pitch-kettled (to use an ancient bit of slang) as any gentleman calling himself ‘Honourable’ well could be.

Which is a thoroughly unhelpful explanation.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_corpse_/]

I dunno... if a 15th century sailor hoved into view and then covered me with heated pitch from his kettle... I'd be pretty damned puzzled.

[wimble.livejournal.com]

I dispute the fact that "puzzled" would be the first word you'd use to describe the situation.

Unless you were wearing your heatproof suit. In which case, I think everybody else would probably have the right to be puzzled. But not really because of the sailor and his pitch.

[grumblesmurf.livejournal.com]

IIRC, Stephenson uses this very fact as a plot point in Cryptonomicon - that may well have been where you encountered it.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Er, oh.

I've read that. Didn't remember it, though.