I used to have this damned stull pulling shingles off my barn. I could never understand
why some people thought it attractive.Never saw it in Virginia. Have you, WW?
bittersweet .

>1 a North American twining woody vine (Celastrus scandens) of the staff-tree family, with poisonous leaves, and bearing clusters of small orange fruits with bright-red fleshy seeds
2 a poisonous, climbing European vine (Solanum dulcamara) of the nightshade family, with purple flowers and red berries, now widely found as a weed in North America
3 a) bitterness and sweetness combined b) pleasure mixed with overtones of sadness
adj.
1 both bitter and sweet, as dark chocolate made with little sugar
2 pleasant with overtones of sadness

I'm absolutely mad about bittersweet! Love the stuff!

When dried, it looks beautiful displayed in a rustic basket.

I'm almost positive I've written about this before on AWAD.

I wish I knew where to find some now. I'd go gather some for a Thanksgiving arrangement.

Dear WW: Your bittersweet must be prettier than what I had in MA. Of course.
I was spoiled by having lots of holly with berries. Far prettier than bittersweet.
Did you know holly has berries of different germination time? Some won't
germinate ;unless a bird has eaten them, some germinate first year, some
skip a year. I forget exact details, it was long ago I heard about it.
Of course there are far more male trees than female. At least only one
in a hundred has berries, or it seems like it.

I had a run-in or two with the holly in New Jersey this September. Darn stuff is not safe for nellipots.

EDIT I stand kerected and barefooted. Nelipot is the werd.

Dear consuelo: whatinnell are "nellipots"?

whatinnell

Good question, Dr. Bill. I thought it was maybe a wwftd, but not since I've ben subscribing. M-W and AHD both refuse to acknowledge it.

I've heard the term "nellipot," but can't recall what it means. I'll check onelook.

Spelling:

nelipot

"nelipot - ( )
Someone who is walking without shoes "

From the Grandiloquent on Onelook.

Oh, L, I added one too many .......
Guess I'll have to sit down and will go no
further in this spelling bee

http://wordsmith.org/board/showflat.pl?Cat=&Board=miscellany&Number=70986

Conniesuelo:

Don't you worry a second about that "l."

I subtracted 2000 from 1997 last week here on AWAD and got 1797, or something like that, for the remainder.

I would love to have a list of major errors I've made here on AWAD, such as crediting Gilbert and Sullivan with "Anything Goes."

One extra little ol' "l" ain't nuthin' by comparison--especially since wwh has spotted a probable error on one of the spelling bee sites.

Dear consuelo: And I love you too, and not only for reminding me why "nelipot" seemed familiar. Bill

But why does nelipot mean "barefoot"?

Must go check Onelook...

Back in a minute with an edit.

Edit: Nothing at all on Onelook about etymology of nelipot. OK. So I repeat: From where did nelipot come?

Here's a famous barefoot:

"byname Magnus Barefoot, Norwegian Magnus Berrføtt, Old Norse Magnus Barfot king of Norway (1093–1103), warrior who consolidated Norwegian rule in the Orkney and Hebrides islands and on the Isle of Man (all now part of the United Kingdom). He was called Barefoot (i.e., bareleg) because he often wore Scottish kilts. "

Now there's some roundabout thinking. He wore kilts; bareleg; barefoot. You go figure.

And he had a tilt to his kilt, no doubt. And underwear had not been invented. So he had three
bare legs.

Each one a foot long? Hence bareleg=barefoot[EG]