Q: Meaning of "ringer"?

[David A. Daniel]

At the monastery the bell ringer dies. The abbot puts an ad in the paper for
a bell ringer. Next day, one candidate shows up and asks to see the abbot.
Abbot looks at him and says, "But you have no arms. How do you ring the
bell?" Candidate says, "I'll show you". They go up to the bell tower. The
candidate starts running toward the bell and smashes into it with his face.
The most beautiful tones ever heard emanate from the bell and the abbot
hires him on the spot. Over the next few weeks the people of the parish are
treated to the most beautiful bell music they have ever heard. Then, one
day, the bell ringer runs toward the bell, misses, and goes flying over the
buttresses into the square below. A crowd gathers. A woman says, "Who is
that?" A man in the crowd says, "I don't know, but his face sure rings a
bell."
So the monastery needs another bell ringer and the abbot puts another ad in
the paper. The next day, an armless man shows up who looks just like the
deceased. The abbot, aghast, says, "But, but... how?" "Ah, says the new
candidate. Your former bell ringer was my twin brother and we have the same
talent. So the abbot hires him and, once again, the people of the parish are
treated to the most beautiful bell music ever. Then, one day, the new bell
ringer runs toward the bell, misses, and goes flying over the buttresses
into the square below. A crowd gathers. A woman says, "Who is that?" A man
in the crowd says, "I don't know, but he's a dead ringer for the other guy."

______________________________________________
The man who always waves the flag often waives what it stands for.
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One phrase I have heard is 'dead ringer' meaning that
something - or someone - was exactly like the other one.
"She was a "dead ringer" for Palin" (meaning Fey)

In another example, a mistake is deliberately made to see if
anyone is paying attention. A place where I once worked
routinely put additional inexpensive items in a random
customers order to test for #1 attention to details and #2
for honesty. The explantion was that they had "threw a
ringer in to see if anyone would catch it. "
J
Can anyone help me understand the meaning and derivation of
"ringer"
below?  (And is it in the OED?)

About a series of email messages on an odd question but one
which
caught the fancy of several persons, person A wrote
>This is like the best of those great weird ringers in old
>19th-c.
>issues of 'Notes & Queries.'

I asked what "ringer" meant, wondering about the game of
horseshoes.

A replied:
>The real answer is that I'm probably misusing it, but I
>always
>associate it with pub trivia contests in which nobody knows
>the
>answer, and in the silence the announcer says, "Okay, that
>was a ringer."

So I now wonder, does "ringer" mean "A question [e.g., query
in
_Notes and Queries_] that is extremely esoteric and perhaps
will
achieve no answer"?

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