Path: utzoo!utgpu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!apple!vsi1!zorch!xanthian From: xanthian@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Kent Paul Dolan) Newsgroups: alt.sources.d Subject: Re: GENERAL WARNING (Adventure SPOILER warning!) Keywords: Adventure, xyzzy Message-ID: <1990Nov23.200532.6608@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG> Date: 23 Nov 90 20:05:32 GMT References: <8428@tekgvs.LABS.TEK.COM> <3246@unisoft.UUCP> Organization: SF-Bay Public-Access Unix Lines: 34 greywolf@unisoft.UUCP (The Grey Wolf) writes: > toma@tekgvs.LABS.TEK.COM (Tom Almy) writes: >> 4. PLOVER would take you from the Plover room to the Y2 room, and >> visa versa. > This is going to be a really dense question (not stupid, because no > question to which the answer is not known qualifies as a stupid > question!), but > Can someone explain further the historical meaning of PLOVER? We > nicknamed our pyramid "plover" on one ethernet board (the other one is > "cheops", which I understand (it's a pyramid in egypt somewhere...)). Well, a plover is a stilt legged shore bird, but I suspect the choice goes back to a mildly off color joke that was current in that era: To set the scene, just remember that essentially _any_ reference to generative organs was worth a smirk, and that _all_ unmarried women were Unsullied Virgins, back in the Ed Sullivan era. Scene: modest party featuring the Jocks of the era and their Bright Young Thing dates. Jock, reading dictionary: "It says here that the male testicle is about the size and shape of a plover's egg." Bright Young Thing: "Oh, that's great! Now we all know how big a plover's egg is!" Kent, the man from xanth. -- That is what passed for hilarious humor in the 1955-1965 era; really!