# Can you make any sense out of this list? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 15, 2010, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-make-any-sense-out-of-this-list/536228 "2010-04-15T16:21:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![williamweigand](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b3f665/32.png) [@williamweigand](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/williamweigand)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2010, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-make-any-sense-out-of-this-list/536228/61 "2010-05-28T12:33:17Z")
> [@Sigmagirl](#): > > **williamweigand** , I got an e-mail from Bill Keaggy. He says “love it . . . haven’t received that list but would love to see it for real!” You didn’t pitch it, did you? I sent it 2 or 3 weeks ago to the snail mail address in Mr. Keaggy’s website. If he truly hasn’t received it by now, I could re-send it. [Full disclosure here - It wasn’t till after I sealed it in the envelope that I realized I put the copy in instead of the “original”.] ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2010, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-make-any-sense-out-of-this-list/536228/62 "2010-05-28T13:08:51Z")
Well, it’s taken this long for him to e-mail me; I guess things run slow. Maybe you should re-send it; you’ll end up in his next book! It seems that it’s not some kind of promotional list or he would have heard about it; everybody sends him all kinds of bizarre lists and he apparently hadn’t seen this one. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2010, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-make-any-sense-out-of-this-list/536228/63 "2010-06-29T12:36:01Z")
Sorry to bump the thread, but I just got an e-mail from Bill Keaggy and he’s going to be on Jimmy Kimmel on Thursday. I doubt he’ll be making an entire segment about **williamweigand** ’s bizarre list, but hey, you never know! Check your local listings! ---
**Author:** ![NineToTheSky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5a626/32.png) [@NineToTheSky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NineToTheSky)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2010, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-make-any-sense-out-of-this-list/536228/64 "2010-06-29T14:02:43Z")
I have an appalling memory, but this thread reminds of that one from a guy who found a box that was very hard to open or something, and it ended up being like a Victorian mystery story. Ring any bells? ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2010, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-make-any-sense-out-of-this-list/536228/65 "2010-06-29T14:09:12Z")
What it reminds me of is one of the mysterious messages in FOUCAULT’S PENDULUM. ---
**Author:** ![williamweigand](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b3f665/32.png) [@williamweigand](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/williamweigand)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2010, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-make-any-sense-out-of-this-list/536228/66 "2010-06-29T14:14:40Z")
> [@Sigmagirl](#): > > Sorry to bump the thread, but I just got an e-mail from Bill Keaggy and he’s going to be on Jimmy Kimmel on Thursday. I doubt he’ll be making an entire segment about **williamweigand** ’s bizarre list, but hey, you never know! Check your local listings! Thanks for the alert - I’ll go shortly to set up to record that. And by the way, before coming here I checked Keaggy’s website to see if he’d displayed my list yet. Didn’t see it. Did he mention anything in the email about it, or was that just a press release announcing his TV appearance? ---
**Author:** ![williamweigand](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b3f665/32.png) [@williamweigand](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/williamweigand)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2010, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-make-any-sense-out-of-this-list/536228/67 "2010-06-29T14:18:01Z")
> [@Tom\_Scud](#): > > What it reminds me of is one of the mysterious messages in FOUCAULT’S PENDULUM. After I set to record Jimmy Kimmel I’m now inspired to skim my copy of that, looking for similarities. ---
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2010, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-make-any-sense-out-of-this-list/536228/68 "2010-06-29T14:55:29Z")
Okay, 4 or 5 teenagers are forming a band. One of them (‘Tom’) lives near you. They’ve been kicking around ideas for band names when they are together. The most organized of them, we’ll call her ‘Dale’, who doesn’t live near you, has compiled a list of the best names - notice that all the phrases are similarly long and nonsensical, they want a name like ‘_Camper Van Beethoven_’ not like ‘_Rush_’. ‘Dale’ dropped off copies of the list at the rest of the bandmember’s houses so that they can vote later. You got the list by accident, as she was wrong about where Tom lives. Personally I like ‘_Apeworld_’, but I think they’re gonna go with ‘_IillegalToffeyChips_’ ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2010, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-make-any-sense-out-of-this-list/536228/69 "2010-06-29T16:19:32Z")
> [@williamweigand](#): > > Thanks for the alert - I’ll go shortly to set up to record that. > > And by the way, before coming here I checked Keaggy’s website to see if he’d displayed my list yet. Didn’t see it. Did he mention anything in the email about it, or was that just a press release announcing his TV appearance? No, it was about the appearance (with Dakota Fanning and Korn!) and some photo links. ---
**Author:** ![palindromemordnilap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/db5fbb/32.png) [@palindromemordnilap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/palindromemordnilap)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2010, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-make-any-sense-out-of-this-list/536228/70 "2010-06-29T18:47:45Z")
> [@Sigmagirl](#): > > No, it was about the appearance (with Dakota Fanning and Korn!) and some photo links. “Dakota Fanning and Korn” sounds like it belongs on the mystery list. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2010, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-make-any-sense-out-of-this-list/536228/71 "2010-06-29T19:28:28Z")
> [@palindromemordnilap](#): > > “Dakota Fanning and Korn” sounds like it belongs on the mystery list. Things to pick up at the grocery store? sorry ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2010, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-make-any-sense-out-of-this-list/536228/72 "2010-06-29T19:32:50Z")
> [@NineToTheSky](#): > > I have an appalling memory, but this thread reminds of that one from a guy who found a box that was very hard to open or something, and it ended up being like a Victorian mystery story. Ring any bells? Sounds like my [“Curious Parcel”](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=440833) Halloween story from a few years back. That was a deliberate work of fiction, however. This list is either the ravings of an impaired mind (not to say my story necessarily wasn’t, of course), or a message composed using a codebook or one-time pad of some sort. A one-time pad approach could produce something like this with effectively no chance of the actual message being decoded. Copying it and placing it in multiple mailboxes might help cloud the identity of the intended recipient–none of the other recipients would be able to interpret it. Of course, it seems likely that a writer who would go to such lengths would be paranoid anyway, so maybe it’s a coded message that says, “Hey, I need my meds!” ---
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2010, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-make-any-sense-out-of-this-list/536228/73 "2010-06-29T20:12:44Z")
**It’s about** metal working, i.e. **decorating metal** , like _silver_ and sterling. Noooo doubt about it. gadolinium = _silvery_-white, malleable and ductile rare-earth metal niello = black metallic alloy of sulfur, copper,\* silver\*, and usually lead, used as an inlay on engraved metal Moon Dioxine Iillegal ToffeyChips = _silver_ sulfer dioxine Niello fuses well onto _silver_ and sterling Niello Machine Felt Loop has something to do with decorating _silver_ (The niello is relatively soft and will therefore respond well to burnishing. Be careful when using a flex shaft or polishing machine for the same reason: the niello will be removed twice as quickly as _silver_ or gold. Stiff polishing equipment such as a leather stick or a felt wheel are preferred) Beta carotem has an effect has an effect as a stabilizer on preparation of _silver_ . ---
**Author:** ![NineToTheSky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5a626/32.png) [@NineToTheSky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NineToTheSky)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2010, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-make-any-sense-out-of-this-list/536228/74 "2010-06-30T07:49:16Z")
> [@Balance](#): > > Sounds like my [“Curious Parcel”](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=440833) Halloween story from a few years back. > > That was a deliberate work of fiction, however. .. And this isn’t? I really enjoyed your thread, BTW - and I’m enjoying this one too, whether or not it’s a work of fiction. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-make-any-sense-out-of-this-list/536228.md?page=3)