Rappel; Cracktress

Sun Aug 29 17:20:32 UTC 2004

One from Gothamist.com and one from Gawker.com.

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RAPPEL

RAPPELLER--45,700 Google hits
RAPPELER--943,000 Google hits

Jen Chung is a woman without flaw, but every once in a while she'll commit a 
tiny one to keep me on my toes. 

"Plaza Hotel rappllers" here should be "rappelers." "Rappel" isn't a very old 
word, and maybe I'll antedate it with a library day next weekend.  

(GOTHAMIST.COM)
Rooftop Protest Banners

Since aerial shots are a little tougher for photobloggers to capture, 
Gothamist is thankful for the local news choppers, which are taking a break from 
traffic reports to show images of the protest banners on New York City rooftops. 
WNBC's RNC coverage page has these photos (above and below) of what some people 
have put on their roofs for passing planes. Welcome to NY, folks.

In other protest news, the Plaza Hotel rappllers were freed without bail, as 
were the ACT UP naked protesters. The tabloids are loving how the parents of 
one of the ACT UP protesters, NYU student Diana Gonzalez, emailed her, writing, 
"We would never expect to see our daughter naked on television on our wedding 
anniversary."

Posted by Jen Chung

(OED)
RAPPEL, v.
    1. trans. To recall (a hawk). Obs. rare. 

  1575 TURBERV. Faulconrie 62 A fearfull goshawke..[will] not willingly 
repayre to any devise wherwith she is called and rappelde after hyr flight.

    2. intr. Mountaineering. To make a steep descent on a doubled rope; to 
rope down. Hence rappelling vbl. n. 

  1957 P. MANSFIELD Final Exposure xvi. 239 He rappelled downwards, with the 
feel of good rock beneath his feet and the bite of the rope at his back. 1969 
Time 22 Aug. 8/2 It is a stirring demonstration ranging from scuba diving.. to 
archery and rappelling (descending a cliff on a double rope). 1974 Telegraph 
(Brisbane) 7 Aug. 23/3 There goes Harry Garner Haskell Jr. rappelling down the 
side of Abercrombie and Fitch.

RAPPEL, n.
[F., f. rappeler to recall, REPEAL.]     1. (rapl). The roll or beat of a 
drum to summon soldiers to arms. 

  1848 W. K. KELLY tr. L. Blanc's Hist. Ten Y. I. 125 Then came drums of the 
national guard beating the rappel and the générale. 1861 W. H. RUSSELL in 
Times 29 July, A strong body of drummers on the French model beat some noisy 
rappel.

  transf. 1866 MISS THACKERAY Village on Cliff xiv, He..beat the rappel with 
his spoon upon the tablecloth.

    2. (ræpl). Mountaineering. (The technique of) descending a steep face by 
means of a doubled rope fixed above the climber; = ABSEIL. Also attrib. 

  <FONT  COLOR="#000000" BACK="#ffffcc" style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffcc" SIZE=2 PTSIZE=8 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" 1931 Times Lit. Suppl. 19 Feb. 129/3 On it [sc. Mont Blanc], climbing 
guideless, they practise every modern refinement, the use of crampons, scarpetti 
and the rappel. 1943 E. SHIPTON Upon that Mountain iv. 84 We could only proceed 
by a series of rappels. This is a method of ‘roping down’. 1950 Rappel sling 
[see LINE n.2 1]. 1952 MORIN & SMITH tr. Herzog's Annapurna viii. 119 
We..fixed our spare rope for a rappel... Terray went down first on the doubled rope. 
1959 S. CLARK Puma's Claw xii. 143 In 1956 the two of us had used the technique 
of ‘abseil’ or ‘rappel’ for seven hours continuously on a descent in the 
Alps. 1965 A. BLACKSHAW Mountaineering viii. 240 Roping down... This 
involves:..pulling the rope round the anchor and down (the ‘rappel’ from which the man
uvre takes its name). 1971 D. HASTON in C. Bonington Annapurna South Face xvii. 
209 The descent took only twenty minutes as I was so enraged with myself. I 
caught Nick up on the last rappel. Ibid. 218 Don was already fixing a rappel 
peg.

(PROQUEST HISTORICAL NEWSPAPERS) ("rappel" + "mountain")
    1.  Other 2 -- No Title
New York Times (1857-Current file). New York, N.Y.: Oct 28, 1925. p. 22 (1 
page) 
(Name of a horse in race results--ed.)

    2.  On Mountaineers and the Peaks They Have Climbed; Mr. Ullman Is a Good 
Guide to a Hazardous and Spectacular Sport HIGH CONQUEST. The Story of 
Mountaineering. By James Ramsay Ullman. Illustrated. 334 pp. Philadelphia, New York: 
J.B. Lippincott Co. $3.75. 
By R.L. DUFFUS. New York Times (1857-Current file). New York, N.Y.: Oct 26, 
1941. p. BR9 (1 page):
The _rappel_, or roping-down. looks dangerous to the layman, but it is, in 
fact. merely "difficult, in that its performance required practice."
(Review of HIGH CONQUEST: THE STORY OF MOUNTAINEERING by James Ramsay 
Ullman--ed.)

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CRACKTRESS

CRACKTRESS--62 Google hits, 0 Google Groups hits

(GOOGLE)
Gawker : Archive for diary
Category: diary. AUG. 27. 2004. The Week In Buzz: Vincent Gallo And The 
Cracktress. ?
Vincent Gallo reveals his past in gay prostitution. We are so not surprised 
... 
www.gawker.com/topic/cat_diary.php - 16k - Aug 27, 2004 - Cached - Similar 
pages 

This term is on Gawker.com this weekend.

What's it mean? An actress who's gone crackers? An actress who's on crack? 

The HDAS has 1675 for "a prostitute or lewd woman" and 1716 for "the cleft of 
the buttocks," but no "cracktress."