# OK, what happened to Equiporpoise? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 22, 2008, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-what-happened-to-equiporpoise/478274 "2008-12-22T04:26:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2008, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-what-happened-to-equiporpoise/478274/21 "2008-12-22T20:41:41Z")
> [@Olentzero](#): > > There are _land_-based cetaceans? Never been to a Bob Evans, huh? ---
**Author:** ![ArrMatey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/arrmatey/32/3522_2.png) [@ArrMatey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ArrMatey)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2008, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-what-happened-to-equiporpoise/478274/22 "2008-12-22T20:55:39Z")
Awww! I thought it was a porpoise too! Darnit, now I’ll have to get my eyes… Eh, it’s been done. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![laughingboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9f8e36/32.png) [@laughingboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/laughingboy)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2008, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-what-happened-to-equiporpoise/478274/23 "2008-12-22T21:05:12Z")
While we’re at it, what’s the origin of **Qadgop the Mercotan**? Googling is no help. It lulls you with the potentially helpful “Did you mean: Qadgop the Mercaptan?” But then that gives absolutely no hits. ---
**Author:** ![Olentzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90ced4/32.png) [@Olentzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Olentzero)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2008, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-what-happened-to-equiporpoise/478274/24 "2008-12-22T21:32:04Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Never been to a Bob Evans, huh? Does Cracker Barrel count? ---
**Author:** ![Stauderhorse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@Stauderhorse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stauderhorse)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2008, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-what-happened-to-equiporpoise/478274/25 "2008-12-22T21:40:37Z")
Ok, I just realized that there are two different posters by the names of **Quasimodem** and **Quasimodal**. For a while there I thought I was losing it! “Wait, I thought he was named Quasimodem. Now it’s Quasimodal. Did he change it?” ---
**Author:** ![Beadalin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@Beadalin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beadalin)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2008, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-what-happened-to-equiporpoise/478274/26 "2008-12-22T21:43:30Z")
I just learned in a certain Pit thread that it’s **pseudotriton ruber ruber** , not **pseudotron ruber ruber**. Blew my little mind, it did. ---
**Author:** ![Bobotheoptimist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/919ad9/32.png) [@Bobotheoptimist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bobotheoptimist)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2008, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-what-happened-to-equiporpoise/478274/27 "2008-12-22T22:29:06Z")
I could let **Qadgop** answer for himself, but the name comes from the famous E.E. “Doc” Smith Lensmen books. Kimbal Kinnison is writing Space Opera as a disguise to foil the Zwilnicks, and it include this classic line “Its terrible xmex-like snout locked on. Its zymolosely polydactile tongue crunched out, crashed down, rasped across. Slurp! Slurp! … Fools! Did they think that the airlessness of absolute space, the heatlessness of absolute zero, the yieldlessness of absolute neutronium could stop QADGOP THE MERCOTAN?” ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2008, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-what-happened-to-equiporpoise/478274/28 "2008-12-22T22:35:24Z")
Now that you mention it, I’ve been reading it all these years as **Qagdop** , not **Qadgop**. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2008, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-what-happened-to-equiporpoise/478274/29 "2008-12-22T22:53:50Z")
For me, Equipoise is the name of a horse mentioned in “Guys and Dolls”. I think that adds something to this discussion. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Cluricaun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2008, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-what-happened-to-equiporpoise/478274/30 "2008-12-22T22:55:44Z")
> [@Beadalin](#): > > I just learned in a certain Pit thread that it’s **pseudotriton ruber ruber** , not **pseudotron ruber ruber**. Blew my little mind, it did. Yup, \*\*Pseudotron Rubber Rubber \*\*is not his name either. Every time I read it though it makes me think of the Hamburgler (robble robble) so that’s who I’ve always pictured making those posts. ---
**Author:** ![ArrMatey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/arrmatey/32/3522_2.png) [@ArrMatey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ArrMatey)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2008, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-what-happened-to-equiporpoise/478274/31 "2008-12-22T23:10:33Z")
> [@eleanorigby](#): > > For me, Equipoise is the name of a horse mentioned in “Guys and Dolls”. I think that adds something to this discussion. > 🙂 I got yer horse… RIGHT HERE! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2008, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-what-happened-to-equiporpoise/478274/32 "2008-12-22T23:32:32Z")
And you’re no **Q-tip,** either. ---
**Author:** ![Olentzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90ced4/32.png) [@Olentzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Olentzero)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2008, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-what-happened-to-equiporpoise/478274/33 "2008-12-22T23:36:42Z")
> [@ArrMatey](#): > > I got yer horse… RIGHT HERE! :eek: His name is “Paul Revere.” ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2008, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-what-happened-to-equiporpoise/478274/34 "2008-12-23T00:12:37Z")
> [@Olentzero](#): > > His name is “Paul Revere.” And there’s a guy who says if the weather’s clear… ---
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2008, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-what-happened-to-equiporpoise/478274/35 "2008-12-23T01:31:23Z")
Don’t go blaming **Equipoise** and **Cunctator**. Their names are both perfectly legitimate English words; as anyone who’d been forced to hide in the library every day to avoid being beaten up as a child would know. They should be duly commended for promulgating their approbation of lexicographic virtuosity. The people who really court opprobrium are those who just make up their usernames out of thin air, as if they were somehow being clever. This is obviously nothing but a cry for help from a warped, bitter soul with a pathological phobia of intimacy, no clear sense of identity, and a tendency to project their own faults onto others. That’s my guess, anyway. ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2008, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-what-happened-to-equiporpoise/478274/36 "2008-12-23T01:38:51Z")
> [@Beadalin](#): > > I just learned in a certain Pit thread that it’s **pseudotriton ruber ruber** , not **pseudotron ruber ruber**. Blew my little mind, it did. I don’t care what **pseudotriton** entered when he joined, it’s “ruber rubber,” damn it. I know this to be so, because I have read it thusly dozens of times. ---
**Author:** ![Invisible\_Chimp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f05b48/32.png) [@Invisible\_Chimp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Invisible_Chimp)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2008, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-what-happened-to-equiporpoise/478274/37 "2008-12-23T02:03:08Z")
> [@Terrifel](#): > > Don’t go blaming **Equipoise** and **Cunctator**. Their names are both perfectly legitimate English words; I did not know that. I just added two new words to my vocabulary. ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2008, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-what-happened-to-equiporpoise/478274/38 "2008-12-23T02:06:47Z")
She doesn’t post anymore, but I can’t be the only one that–when she did post–thought **lobstermobster** was **lobstermonster**. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2008, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-what-happened-to-equiporpoise/478274/39 "2008-12-23T03:29:20Z")
> [@eleanorigby](#): > > For me, Equipoise is the name of a horse mentioned in “Guys and Dolls”. I think that adds something to this discussion. > 🙂 I haven’t seen **Guys and Dolls** but it was also the name of a horse being bet on by the POWs in the 1953 movie **Stalag 17**. I saw the movie on Turner Classics several years ago and I was surprised to see it listed. **Guys and Dolls** came out in 1955. According to [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equipoise_(horse)), Equipoise was an important and decorated champion thoroughbred racehorse owned by the Whitney family. He won several important races and awards, then died at 10 years old in 1938. According to [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equipoise), it’s also an “[ethical basis for medical research](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinical_equipoise),” a [steroid](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boldenone), a [legal term](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equipoise_(law)), a poetic term, a type of propeller, a type of denture, as well as the album where I got the name. [QUOTE=Terrifel] Don’t go blaming Equipoise and Cunctator. Their names are both perfectly legitimate English words; as anyone who’d been forced to hide in the library every day to avoid being beaten up as a child would know. They should be duly commended for promulgating their approbation of lexicographic virtuosity. [/QUOTE] Thanks! Sorry about the beatings. For anyone who doesn’t know, the [word itself means](http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/equipoise) “A state of balance; equilibrium” which was the point of the album name (and the point of that freaky cover). Usages: > [@](#): > > ``` > * 1794, Edmund Burke, A Letter to a Noble Lord, > > *Government was unnerved, confounded, and in a manner suspended. Its **equipoise** was totally gone.* > > * 1869, T. S. Arthur, After the Storm, Ch. IV, > > *“An easy evasion”, retorted the excited bride, who had lost her mental **equipoise**.* > > * 1878, Thomas Hardy, The Return of the Native, Ch. 6, > > *The words were not without emotion, and retained their level tone as if by a careful **equipoise** between imminent extremes.* > > * 1927-29, Mahatma Gandhi, An Autobiography or The Story of my Experiments with Truth, Part II, Raychandbhai, translated 1940 by Mahadev Desai, > > *And I saw him thus absorbed in godly pursuits in the midst of business, not once or twice, but very often. I never saw him lose his state of **equipoise**.* > > ``` ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2008, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-what-happened-to-equiporpoise/478274/40 "2008-12-23T03:47:04Z")
“Qadgop the Mercotan slithered flatly around the after-bulge of the tranship. One claw dug into the meters-thick armor of pure neutronium, then another. Its terrible xmex-like snout locked on. Its zymolosely polydactyl tongue crunched out, crashed down, rasped across. Slurp! Slurp! At each abrasive stroke the groove in the tranship’s plating deepened and Qadgop leered more fiercely. Fools! Did they think that the airlessness of absolute space, the heatlessness of absolute zero, the yieldlessness of absolute neutronium could stop QADGOP THE MERCOTAN? And the stowaway, that human wench Cynthia, cowering in helpless terror just beyond this thin and fragile wall…” Cynthia and I are still together after a lengthy courtship, happily married over 25 years now. Sybly Whyte was the Best Man. 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-what-happened-to-equiporpoise/478274.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-what-happened-to-equiporpoise/478274.md?page=3)