deedly-ball

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

another member of the deely-bob etc. family that we talked about here a
while back: "deedly-ball", which i encountered in a comic essay on gay
life, "POP QUIZ--How "Martha Are You?", in Joel Perry's _Funny That
Way: Adventures in Fabulousness_ (Los Angeles/New York: Alyson Books,
2001).  p. 164:

   Phenomenally successful as she [Martha Stewart] is, there are still
among us who think flower-patterned drapes with deedly-ball fringe are
chic.

the meaning is perfectly clear from the context (especially if you've
seen the curtain style in question), but the label is new to me.

a google search nets only one citation, and that's perry's original
essay as published in Instinct magazine of 11/12/98.  there are no hits
for "deely-ball" or "dealy-ball".

arnold (zwicky at csli.stanford.edu), on the fringe