Oxboink

A report on the 16 January 2009 Oxboink was posted to the newsgroup by Laura and is reproduced here:

Mike L, Mike’s friends Julia (the cliché expert) and Philip, Katy J and Laura met at Quod today, joined after the first course by Paul who was delayed by traffic jams. This boink was unusually focused and all discussion was strictly on topic so Your Correspondent was able to construct the following detailed minutes (although she may have omitted some stuff because she can't decipher her notes).

Food: Mike and Laura opted for the poached salmon salad with couscous which was served somewhat oddly in kilner jars. Philip announced that he would drink any sort of wine which prompted a discussion of the appropriate word to describe him, which would be the equivalent of omnivorous. Omnibibulous and pansymposial were suggested. The wine list was sadly straightforward with none of the descriptive flights of fancy which on an earlier occasion this week prompted Laura to invent a game of “If you were a wine on this list, which one would you be?” However, the lack of menu material to analyse was somewhat remedied when Mike produced the wrapping from an electrical item he had recently purchased which carried an almost unintelligible translation from Japanese.

Sheep: these were briefly mentioned when Paul told of his business dealings with the Falkland Islands.

Laughter: there was much of this, which was then analysed, which led to more of it. It was noted that words describing things which make people laugh tended to have negative connotations, for example ridiculous and risible. Hilarific was suggested. Types of laugh were performed and considered in some detail. Mike was accused of guffawing (but if he did so it was very quiet as Your Correspondent didn’t hear it). Katy provided illustrations of cackling and shrieking. Categories such as dirty laughs, laughs accompanied by body movement and army laughs were identified. No conclusions were reached so this item will be carried forward to a future boink agenda.

Matters for report: 1. “The Barber of Camarthen” is an opera composed by a cousin of Vaughan Williams, whose first name is shrouded in mystery (the cousin, not Ralph pronounced Rafe) with a libretto by Nosier pronounced Nosher Thomas, a little-known cousin of Dylan, but no-one present could sing any of it. 2. Eithne is pronounced Enya. 3. Mike: (a) knew of an Yvonne pronounced Weaveney (b) is germinating hemp seeds in his airing cupboard (but don’t tell anyone)

Any other business: 1. Philip enquired if there was an aue motto and suggested “But I digress”, pace Tom Lehrer. 2. Remembrance of boinks past: those at the Tate and the British Museum were remembered, as was dear Graeme. We hoped that Stephanie’s house move went well. 3. The recent torrent of excellent Tom Swifties was applauded.

Click here to see the posting and the rest of the thread in the Google archives.

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Katy J

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Philip Cresswell and Mike Lyle

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Poached salmon and couscous salad served in a jar(!)

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Julia Cresswell (author of The Cat's Pyjamas: The Penguin Book of Cliches) and Paul Wolff

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Paul Wolff and Laura