Hornswaggler | The culture, the humor, a bit of the sports, not so much the politics, and the workplace distraction
Hornswaggle is an alternate spelling of
hornswoggle, an archaic word that means to bamboozle or hoodwink. I take my
pronunciation from the late Harvey Korman in "Blazing Saddles" --
"I want rustlers, cutthroats, murderers,
bounty hunters, desperados, mugs, pugs, thugs, nitwits, halfwits, dimwits,
vipers, snipers, conmen, Indian agents, Mexican bandits, muggers,
buggerers, bushwhackers, hornswagglers, horse thieves, bull dykes, train
robbers, bank robbers, ass kickers, shit kickers and Methodists!"
So we discovered a leak under the kitchen sink that had damaged a small portion of our wood floor. You know what almost made up for it but didn't? The portly Russian plumber who came to fix it.
"Is no mystery," he said when I asked him what the problem was. It was hard to tell how much of that was good humor and how much was condescension.
"Is no mystery," he repeated as he removed the corroded section of pipe from beneath the sink and dropped it on the counter. "You have leak for very long time, my dear friend. Very long time."
Repairing the leak was covered by our insurance, so it was a flat rate. Nonetheless, as he was wrapping up, he threw in a bit of salesmanship, telling me, "I believe you get very good deal today, my friend. Yup."
I liked this guy way more than the man of undetermined European origin who came last time, who seemed like he was mentally unhinged and perhaps even dangerous.
