Date: Sat, 25 Sep 2004 04:20:52 -0700
Reply-To: BenT <syncro@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: BenT <syncro@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Friday/Jerry rigged
In-Reply-To: <vanagon%2004092502174773@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Mike & Joy,
Jerry rigged is what the producers in the Jerry Springer shows do
before the guest go on stage.
Respectfully yours,
BenT Logjick
On Sat, 25 Sep 2004 02:17:47 -0400, Mike Miller <mwmiller@cwnet.com> wrote:
> Well, since you asked...
>
> Joe Hakkapelliitta had a sister, Jerry. Italian Finns are a little vague on gender differentiation by conventional means,
> including names, they usually use stick on tags as you see at big parties and conventions only reading BOY, or GIRL, or
> NOT YET DETERMINED. As you can see an open minded people.
>
> Stay with me here as this all is pertinent to the explanation of "Jerry-rigged."
>
> Anyway Jerry was riding her Segway People Mover around Florence one day [Florence her twin sister was a tad on the
> overweight side so it was a good idea to use motorized transport to get around her, they were actually located in Maranello,
> as was the remainder of the Hakkapelliitta family. They all worked at Ferrari building Vanagens. You didn't know Ferrari
> built Vanagens? Well it does. That explains the acceleration, they put it all in the cars with little to none left over for the
> Vans. It's not an accident that the engine in a 512 TestaRosa looks just like a Van engine. Again you will have to pay
> attention, this is not fluff but central to our story.] Anyway she was riding around Florence [remember the twin sister? Yes,
> I'm sure you do] and she got lost and ended up in Finland with twin brother Joe. [One of the reasons there are so many
> Hakkapelliitta's in Maranello is this tendency towards twin. I believe the University of Fiarenza {SP?} is studying this as we
> speak. But I digress this has nothing to do with the origin of the word 'Jerry-rigged']
>
> Well, Joe had the tire market pretty well locked up and Jerry didn't much care for Finland anyway as her Segway kept falling
> into holes in the snow. This was in the summer as in the winter it's not possible to fall in the holes in the snow are there are
> none. [Darn, another digression] Anyway Jerry decided to go back to Southern Finland, also known as Italy in some
> quarters. But while she had been tooling around falling into snow holes the land bridge across the Baltic Sea had
> submerged again [Sneaky old land bridge, eh?] So Jerry had to go by way of Russia.
>
> Now Russia, or East Italy, was not a hot bed of Segway technology in those days of Communism and Soviets and all that so
> when her people mover had a bit of a problem there really was no help available. So Jerry [pay attention now we're getting
> to the good part] took apart a T 34 tank that had been kind of wrecked when the Germans [also known as Jerrys in some
> locales] had tried to establish closer relations with the Russians. See the Germans, from Germany or North kind of East
> Italy as its general known, had the idea that they could impress the Russians with their engineering knowledge by showing
> off their military, which they did. But it left a lot of wrecked tanks and such. By luck the T 34 used the exact same part that
> had broken on the Segway. Well, almost exact. Turns out the the badge on the front of the Segway was pretty close to a
> tread from the track of the T 34. So Jerry took out her nail file and modified it to fit.
>
> Hence the term 'jerry-rigged.' Of course it didn't work very well, actually at all and Jerry was stuck with a 'jerry-rigged'
> Segway in Russia. That gave rise to the secondary meaning of 'jerry' as in 'jerry built.' None of his would have mattered
> except that Jerry met Stalin while she was filing down the tank tread. Who was so impressed with her industriousness that
> he wowed, and won her. As a tribute to his new bride he encouraged [I believe free trips to Siberia were mentioned
> prominently] the Russians, or North Eastern Italians to use the term 'Jerry-rigged' any time they mentioned an almost fixed
> Segway People Mover. Naturally this usage spread to Italy North, Italy a little North and kind of East and Italy, and thus to
> the rest of the world. Including the van list.
>
> At least that's how Unca Joel explained it to me but in blank verse of course and woven into the legend of Beowulf.
>
> Clear now?
>
> Mike
>
> Formerly Sacramento [I was asked to leave] and now of Fairfax [I was asked not to come]
>
> On 9/24/04 8:55 PM, "Joy Hecht" <jhecht@ALUM.MIT.EDU> wrote:
>
> > Yes, PLEASE! Re explaining jerry rigged, I mean. Quick, while it's still
> > Friday!
> >
> >
> > Joy
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