Are you all ready for the s**t to hit the fan? The real definition is...a. It was one of several terms I heard on The History Channel, in this fantastic series called "The Worst Jobs in History". There were five segments: the Middle Ages, the Tudors, the Stuarts, the Georgians, and the Victorians. The host and main re-enactor was Tony Robinson, whom IMDb tells me was in Blackadder which I've never seen, but from comments posted here undoubtedly explains why I liked him so well. He did a good job of explaining how terms developed, such as saying that if your last name is Fuller, you probably had an ancestor who prepared sheeps' wool. (By stamping on it in a vat of stale urine. )

Anyway, here in red is who did the submitting, followed by blue for who did the voting--and darn you, tsuwm, if it hadn't been for you I'd have had a clean sweep:


a. A man, who, in the Middle Ages, had to go into the tunnels beneath towns and castles and clear out the plumbing when it got stopped up; gong is from the OE word for dung. real tsuwm

b. A hollywood talent scout. musick
Max, inselpeter, Elizabeth Creith

c. noun. From the Vietnamese French. One who shapes, makes and tunes cymbals used in Vietnamese music. After formier meaning "one who shapes a hat." Father Steve Marianna, AnnaStrophic, Coffeebean

d. a middleman who can arrange for someone to be awarded medals etc. Bingley
Ted

e. one who farms genetically original naturally grown crops consuelo
Father Steve

f. slang,obsolete: a derogatory reference to a farmer who quit after the dinner gong rang instead of taking advantage of long evenings and good weather to plant or harvest. Elizabeth Creith owlbow, Whiman O'Neill

g. one who uses drugs by smoking them; Cockney rhyming-slang, from "bong warmer" wofahulicodoc
etaoin

h. A soldier who actively seeks danger, looking for the chance to win medals. sjmaxq
faldage

i. Collector of "road apples" in Amish country. TEd Remington
Consuelo, Wofa

j. A seller of used fats and oils. inselpeter
Musick

k. the timing device in a grandfather clock. WhitmanO'Neill


l. One who grows sunflowers for the seeds, usually to be used in bird seed mix. Faldage bingley


So--Musick and Father Steve cleaned up (heh) on this one. The Hogmistress uses her privilege to bestow ½ point to wofa for submitting a most-likely cross-over (figure that one out if you can), ½ point to Ted for submitting a definition that was really close without knowing it, and ½ point to WO'N for submitting the most logical definition that didn't get a vote. Hmm--and 3/4 of a point to Faldage, who had to submit an alternate definition due to the post about the Gong Show.

Special thanks to Alex Williams, who provided me with a link, though googling gong farmer provides some interesting sites, I discovered. But here's his:
gong farmer

Now, as the final puzzle for this round: which of the above definitions has a secret ?