Duckbutt's definitions

mushroom status

This is the plight occasionally experienced by lower-level college administrators such as department or division chairs in which they are on a short leash as to what they can do, are regularly given a ration of shit, and are kept in the dark.

No budget, no instructions, no discretion or wiggle room; Bill has been consigned to mushroom status and regular Friday afternoon meetings.

by Duckbutt September 23, 2005

uninstalled

A slang synonym for getting fired.

Wally had second thoughts about his making out with the boss's secretary/mistress in the copy room after he was uninstalled from the Ripoff Systems Analysis Corporation.

by Duckbutt October 1, 2005

awdoc

An awdoc is a university student who discovers at about ninety percent of the way through a semester that he (rarely she) is making a poor grade and asks for some slack on the course grade or deadlines for term papers. Awdocs are so-called because of their characteristic distress call, "Aww Doc!"

Soon it will be Thanksgiving, and the awdocs will discover that time is running out for them. I must purchase two boxes of Puffs for them and replenish the Jack Daniel's for myself!

by Duckbutt September 30, 2005

doodlebugging

Using a seismic method for exploring for oil that entails setting off explosions at measured intervals and recording the shock waves' passage through different strata.

Bill spent the summer doodlebugging with a seismic crew off the Great Barrier Reef.

by Duckbutt July 29, 2005

400 pound gorilla

Something that cannot be overlooked because it is so much larger and more impressive than any of the others.

When it came to rock music groups, the Rolling Stones are the 400 pound gorilla: the quinitessinally best of them all.

by Duckbutt January 7, 2007

Gypsy Rose Lee Strategy

In negotiations or in a hierarchy, this is a strategy of holding back the commitment of some resources. The plan is that they might be subsequently required by a customer or superior and, when provided, gives them the sense that they have gained a considerable concession. This is named after Gypsy Rose Lee (1911-1970), American ecdysiast (stripteaser), who advised a stripper to pretend that she had completed her disrobing but still had one or more garments that could be removed and had been planned to do so. This caused the customers to clamor for her to remove more, and when she would seemingly reluctantly did so, it would, give them the sense of having gotten something extra.

On my original proposal, I used the Gypsy Rose Lee strategy by not listing some things that were planned because I knew that they would be requested and I wanted to give the impression of them having gained some big concessions.

by Duckbutt January 30, 2007

Scheissenbedaurn

Scheissenbedaurn is the vague sense of disappointment that something thought to be really bad or in awful taste turns out to be not as bad as expected. (From the German, meaning literally: "shit-regret")

I left concerts by the Dixie Chicks and by Britney Spears with a vague sense of scheissenbedaurn. They merely mildly sucked, but neither was the world-class suckfest I longed for. The same thing cannot be said about the enormity that is a Barbra Streisand concert.

by Duckbutt October 27, 2006