[Sca-cooks] sops

[Laura C. Minnick]

At 02:31 PM 6/5/2006, you wrote:

> >From  the Oxford English Dictionary:
>2. a. A whimsical, eccentric, strange, or perverse notion or idea. Now
>arch. and regional
>a1625 J. FLETCHER Women Pleas'd III. iv, in F. Beaumont & J. Fletcher
>Comedies & Trag. (1647) sig. Eeeeee2v/1, Are not you mad my friend?.. Have
>not you Maggots in your braines? c1645 J. HOWELL Epistolæ Ho-Elianæ (1688)
>II. 328 There's a strange Magot hath got into their Brain. 1680 DRYDEN Kind
>Keeper V. i. 57 What new Maggot's this? you dare not sure be jealous! 1685
>S. WESLEY (title) Maggots: Or, Poems on several subjects. a1692 T. SHADWELL
>Volunteers (1693) V. i. 51 M. G. Bl. Ha Fellow, what dost thou mean by a
>Maggot? Hop. Sir, a little Concern of mine in my way,a little whim, or so
>sir
>
>I believe this meaning may be a sly reference to the older meaning of an
>insect larva. However, it may also be a reference to another definition --
>Maggot as a pet name for the magpie.

Sly reference?
'Whimsical' as a definition of 'maggot' is clearly a metaphorical use; 
notice that the OED definition that you reference uses 'maggot' in the same 
way we might call someone's head/brains a 'noodle'. We are not saying that 
the brains are literally full of pasta. Except, perhaps, for those of us 
who are now arguing about maggots and not discussing the scholastic 
problems of one of our members. Which may, of course, have been the 
intention in dropping this little 'bon mot'.

'Lainie
___________________________________________________________________________
Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgement that something 
else is more important than fear.   --Ambrose Redmoon