# A twicky gimmick **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [September 24, 2008, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-twicky-gimmick/465011 "2008-09-24T16:35:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2008, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-twicky-gimmick/465011/41 "2008-09-24T23:23:20Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > You win a copy of [Wright’s story _Gadsby_](http://www.spinelessbooks.com/gadsby/). Lucky you! What will you do with it? Fails to think of a synonym for this particular action word… ---
**Author:** ![Ichbin\_Dubist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/51bf81/32.png) [@Ichbin\_Dubist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ichbin_Dubist)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2008, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-twicky-gimmick/465011/42 "2008-09-24T23:44:07Z")
So what to call this bright, wordy oblong that I’m looking at on my iBook (lucky, that)? The Dutch call it “dopp,” a word akin to the Spanish “salsa.” Is the Dopp Straight? Who knows! My own honorific stays as is, anyway. ---
**Author:** ![This\_ll\_Do](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/this_ll_do/32/3023_2.png) [@This\_ll\_Do](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/This_ll_Do)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2008, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-twicky-gimmick/465011/43 "2008-09-25T01:33:35Z")
Only a month ago, my old Windows box did a catastrophic croak. Now I own an iMac, and my satisfaction knows no bounds. Though I am still figuring out how to work things in this odd but charming world of Macintosh, I did find out why Mac-owning individuals display a rabid loyalty to such products: it is a work of art, simply fabulous. No way can any constantly annoying Windows apparatus possibly disturb such affinity as I hold toward my iMac. It cost a shocking amount of dough, but is totally worth it. \ I am obviously a victim of that insidious infatuation familiar to all Mac folks, and known also to any sadly put-upon Windows owning individuals who cannot ward off a constant flow of admiration and smug satisfaction from a blissful Mac-toting boor. I thought I could hold out, maintain rationality, but alas, this contraption has won an additional doting human. As I am not using a Windows apparatus now, I must ask you guys: What is this Control-f? On my box that combination shows no function that would assist with this difficult but gratifying pursuit. I did attach a Microsoft split KB to my Mac, so it is a possibility that I lost this function as I took away an original ultrathin aluminum board. It was a cool thing, but I could not adapt to it. Who has a solution to this conundrum? ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2008, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-twicky-gimmick/465011/44 "2008-09-25T01:38:40Z")
Wow. I’m at a loss for words. **stands and applauds, hoping to start an ovation** ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2008, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-twicky-gimmick/465011/45 "2008-09-25T01:54:48Z")
_joins ovation, jaw dropping_ ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2008, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-twicky-gimmick/465011/46 "2008-09-25T02:13:43Z")
Quoth **Sigmagirl** : > [@](#): > > Today I bought daffodils, lilacs, and tulips. What, no pastry? Quoth **This’ll Do** : > [@](#): > > As I am not using a Windows apparatus now, I must ask you guys: What is this Control-f? Try command-f. Windows control = Mac command. Mac control is just for making a right-click, mostly. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2008, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-twicky-gimmick/465011/47 "2008-09-25T04:13:27Z")
I thought about this all day; I was in a quandary. I took hours to catch what was occurring. But I finally did. An inspiring, if occasionally frustrating, wordplay, **twicks**. Thanks for confronting us with it! ---
**Author:** ![Scribble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scribble/32/3317_2.png) [@Scribble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scribble)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2008, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-twicky-gimmick/465011/48 "2008-09-25T05:39:36Z")
Midnight was an hour and a half ago. I should go horizontal and unconscious, and I should stay that way until dawn. I know that I am klutzy and stupid without my nightly snoozing, but I am sitting at my laptop, composing this post, anyway. I’m shaking a bit from the cold. It’s officially autumn now, I think. It was warm at night until tonight. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2008, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-twicky-gimmick/465011/49 "2008-09-25T13:17:00Z")
> [@Scribble](#): > > Midnight was an hour and a half ago. I should go horizontal and unconscious, and I should stay that way until dawn. I know that I am klutzy and stupid without my nightly snoozing, but I am sitting at my laptop, composing this post, anyway. > > I’m shaking a bit from the cold. It’s officially autumn now, I think. It was warm at night until tonight. It was cool today too, in Florida (I’m in Palm Bay.) It’s also fall-approach in Florida, or what masks for it in my location. No plants turning colors, no dank chill coming across my land with a windy ghost-gust. South of buffalo, my family would ask for candy in a windy fall dark town, carrying back bags and bags of sugary bars and lollipops. My bro and I had no fright walking past ghostly haunts of Colonial burials with stony walls masking colonists who long ago did transform to unliving mass, and now only push up blooms, who in long days past would group in a wind-blown shack by hot coals, in fright of angry Indians. In Florida, no whiff of fall is blown down by gusts from up North. No odor of dropping brown and blood-color plant-parts. No slight hint of mud that will unstoppably transform through cold months into a bog of Spring. But most of all, no spooky chill coming down from Canada to transform fall months into a poignant, soul-touching storm. ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9fc29f/32.png) [@Dead\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Cat)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2008, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-twicky-gimmick/465011/50 "2008-09-25T13:42:53Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > Join twicks in this world of wordplay – > > If you can distinquish what is idiosyncratic about this OP, you might want to add a post of your own. > > If not, naturally, you won’t. > > Hint: Looking in my crystal ball, I don’t think most participants will fashion particularly wordy posts. I thouqht the spellinq in it was a bit stranqe, but I read the first response before replyinq, so I don’t think that was what you intended. ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9fc29f/32.png) [@Dead\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Cat)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2008, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-twicky-gimmick/465011/51 "2008-09-25T13:54:37Z")
Too tardy to adjust my original posting, it took **Thudlow Boink** to bring up Mr Wright (aka, in this situation, Him Who Must Not Show His First Initial?) so that I could work it out. I am in shock at how long this took - obviously I am not as studious as I thought! I could probably go on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on… but I won’t. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2008, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-twicky-gimmick/465011/52 "2008-09-25T14:09:01Z")
This post is wholly cromul… oops, watch it, Mal! Sort of akin to sitting at a location that two walls adjoin and avoiding thinking of a big albino animal with tusks and a trunk, in my opinion. Anyway, props to Mr OP for an amusing way to pass a small handful of chrono-units. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2008, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-twicky-gimmick/465011/53 "2008-09-25T14:19:24Z")
Chrono-units…LOL. That part about adjoining walls puts into my mind a story that has nothing to do with our topic so far but I will try to horn into our gimmick: I bought Amory Wars, which is a comic-ization of albums by a band with frontman Claudio and an album “Good Apollo: I’m Burning Star IV”. In it: a boy stows away on a starship which turns out to haul trash. Upon liftoff, a caption says: “Claudio [our boy] will stay okay, as long as walls dont start closing in.” I though it was a blatant but still fairly cool call-out to Star Wars IV (trash compactor). ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2008, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-twicky-gimmick/465011/54 "2008-09-25T14:19:48Z")
> [@Dead\_Cat](#): > > I thouqht the spellinq in it was a bit stranqe, but I read the first response before replyinq, so I don’t think that was what you intended. Nah, that was a typo. And with that – BZZZT! So long! You don’t grok my gimmick. Ah – I backtrack now that I look on your follow-up post – you may stay. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2008, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-twicky-gimmick/465011/55 "2008-09-25T14:23:39Z")
Finally got it. Prior to lighting on Thudlow’s link, a book I know rumors of, though I did not look at it. ---
**Author:** ![jali](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecae2f/32.png) [@jali](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jali)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2008, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-twicky-gimmick/465011/56 "2008-09-25T14:28:44Z")
Good morning all. I’ll try to post in a way you’ll find okay, but I find this difficult to do. I’m not as wordy using this format so I’ll stop now. Good day. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2008, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-twicky-gimmick/465011/57 "2008-09-25T14:32:27Z")
And **jail** joins us cool kids. 😃 – **Larry Borgia** also. ---
**Author:** ![Rebo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rebo/32/13005_2.png) [@Rebo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rebo)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2008, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-twicky-gimmick/465011/58 "2008-09-25T15:09:05Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > And **jail** joins us cool kids. 😃 – **Larry Borgia** also. psst! It’s **J A L I**. Is anybody cognizant of a short story about this topic? I thought I saw it a-ways back… A King story? ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2008, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-twicky-gimmick/465011/59 "2008-09-25T15:14:38Z")
I know only of a book which an author did using this construction. I could not say its card-catalog listing, though. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2008, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-twicky-gimmick/465011/60 "2008-09-25T15:23:24Z")
I think **Thudlow** ’s post #40 will assist in calling it to mind: > [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > You win a copy of [Wright’s story _Gadsby_](http://www.spinelessbooks.com/gadsby/). Lucky you! What will you do with it? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-twicky-gimmick/465011.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-twicky-gimmick/465011.md?page=4)