Utterly OT:[Was Re: Need better string methods]

[David MacQuigg]

On Sat, 06 Mar 2004 23:59:28 GMT, rzed <rzantow at ntelos.net> wrote:

>David MacQuigg <dmq at gain.com> wrote in
>news:0d4k40987t6d70bahqil3geth640bufgoc at 4ax.com: 
>
>> [...]     Here is a typical line of garbage from a
>> statefile revision control system (simplified to eliminate some
>> items that pose no new challenges):
>> 
>> line = "..../bgref/stats.stf| SPICE | 3.2.7  | John    Anderson 
>> \n" 
>> 
>> The problem is to break this into its component parts, and
>> eliminate spaces and other gradoo. 
>
>[UTTERLY OFFTOPIC QUESTION]:
>This "gradoo" of which you speak ... where did you learn the word? I 
>only ask, because I know (and use) "gradeau", pronounced like I 
>imagine "gradoo" would be pronounced, to mean miscellaneous cruft or 
>garbage ... but I've only ever heard it used by a small group of 
>people who, as far as I know, originated the use of the word in Green 
>Bay, Wisconsin, in the mid-1970's.

Actually, I didn't know it was a real word until I saw the discussion
of 'gradeau' in this thread.  I've never seen it in print, but I heard
it used by a construction supervisor in Gainesville, Florida in the
mid-eighties. How's that for memory :>)  It sound like a contraction
of "gratuitous doo-doo", you know, the kind of doo-doo that George
Bush the First is famous for. :>)

Somehow it seems to uniquely fit the kind of "cruft and garbage" I'm
seeing as a challenge for our string methods.

-- Dave