no gaffe here

[IED0DXM%OAC.UCLA.EDU@MITVMA.MIT.EDU]

Can't you? IED can just feel it in the air now -- IT'S COMING SOON!
Save your pennies -- the TOUR OF LIFE II is coming, too!

IED will not belabour this boring two-year-old argument he and |>oug
have been having about "Gaffa", except to point out that IED said that
the "variants" on the "word" "Gaffa" do indeed number twenty-five or
so in the OED, and -- as IED said at the time -- those variants are no
farther in spelling from "Gaffa" than is |>oug's "gaffer's tape"; that
IED requests that |>oug produce the quotation (page and line number,
please) from Kate herself "confirming" that the "Gaffa" in
_Suspended_in_Gaffa_ "means" "gaffer's tape" -- assuring |>oug that if
this is done IED will gladly concede the point; that the vague
comments from about a year ago from a (Norwegian?)  Love-Hound that
"gaffa" was sometimes a term for "gaffer's tape" did not seem the
least convincing to IED; and that if there's a "Gaffa" brand, he'd
like someone to show it to him, because short of finding an actual
brand called "Gaffa", none of the above -- even if they _did_ "prove"
the connection of "gaffa" to "gaffer's tape" -- does anything to
explain the mysterious capitalization of the term. Finally, IED would
just like to remind |>oug that he has _never_denied_ the _possibility_
that |>oug's interpretation is correct. It very likely is _one_
meaning of the term in the song. He is annoyed, however, by |>oug's
insistence -- against all his own so-often-avowed openness to the
multiplicity of meaning in Kate's lyrics -- that "Gaffa" can only mean
one very mundane thing, and that it isn't equally possible that it
could mean _more_than_one_thing_, or even
_something_altogether_different_.

-- Andrew Marvick

      [	I have never said that "Gaffa" can't mean more than one thing,
	and you know it!  But to say that "gaffa" must be derived from
	"gaffe" makes about as much sense as to say that "hello" must
	be derived from "hell".  You just have absolutely no evidence
	that "gaffa" is supposed to mean "gaffe".  If you do have some
	evidence for this, please present it.  I would certainly be
	willing to accept the theory that Kate was making a double
	entendre, if I was presented with even a modest amount of
	evidence, but you have presented none.  On the other hand, I
	have already presented you with two separate and conclusive
	pieces of information that show that "gaffa" is jargon for
	gaffer's tape.  (1) Kate says that's what she intended.  (2) A
	Swedish Love-Hounds says that in Sweden, any roadie knows
	"gaffer's tape" by the name "gaffa".  What more evidence could
	you have?  Do you want Kate to call you up on the phone and
	say, "Yes, Andrew, "Gaffa" is gaffer's tape!"?

	What explains the fact that Kate capitalized "Gaffa" on the
	lyric sheet?  This is easy, even if "Gaffa" is not a brand
	name.  What explains the fact that Kate spells "Orgonon"
	incorrectly on the lyrics sheet for HoL?  She spells it
	"Organon".  What explains this strange and mysterious signal,
	this secret message, this sign from above?  I'll tell you what
	explains it..... a typo.  It's as simple as that.  Kate
	goofed.  To build a mountain out of a single bit error is
	ludicrous.  -- |>oug ]