August 15 2011

Word of the Week: Toodlembuc

TOODLEMBUC (toohdl-uhm-buk) – a gambling top made of skewer, cotton reel, and cardboard disc, its sectors bearing a horse’s name and the odds reflecting each sector’s size. [origin uncertain] Aussie kids of yore could spend hours (and shillings) playing toodlembuc.

Comments

Criseyde — 15 August at 07:13AM

Interesting word, but have only managed to find it with a 'k' at the end.

RobT — 15 August at 07:20AM

Game Akela's assembly around strange light.

RobT — 15 August at 07:22AM

Perhaps I shoulda added "back" at the start. Grrrrrr

Boniface — 15 August at 09:31AM

Child's play to trim back snapping poodles (midsection only) and mind both heads (10)

Sam — 15 August at 09:52AM

Doco tumbled dice spinning game

RK — 15 August at 09:54AM

Club Med too wild for child's play

Anthony Douglas — 15 August at 11:35AM

It's cut me ... blood ... dizzy ... everything's spinning around ... (10)

I'm sure someone can do better with that, but I liked the surface.

SK — 15 August at 12:12PM

A down clue-

Former top fashion model to raise offspring (10)

RV — 15 August at 12:16PM

It looks like Criseyde is right about the spelling but I'll go with DA's spelling.

Tom could be shuffling in gambling game.

Anthony Douglas — 15 August at 01:11PM

Ooh, SK, that's lovely. I wonder if you could 'rear' the offspring for an across clue, perhaps with a ?

Boniface — 15 August at 01:59PM

Drunken, discombobulated losing is bad. But it's a gambler's thing.

SK — 15 August at 04:27PM

Yep Anthony, "rear" makes for a nice across clue variation.

Like Criseyde, I could only find reference to the alternative spelling...so here's one for the +k version-

Terrier/poodle cross with thousand dollar wager on top? (11)

JPR — 15 August at 08:07PM

Horsey wager device, could be Tom Mix

DA — 15 August at 08:26PM

Wowzer - what a dizzy standard has been set this week. I first fell in love with RK's Club Med, then along came the guile of SK's 'former top' as def.

(Not to mention the cowboy motif of JPR's latest. Class acts all.)

DA — 16 August at 06:27AM

Another thought JPR, while not altogether elegant:

Antique revolver could be Tom Mix's

JPR — 16 August at 07:25AM

elegant indeed
or I was thinking:

Could be Tom Mix with horse-themed gadget? You bet!

Em — 16 August at 12:42PM

Dee and I in a trashy Murrayside town to try our luck at an older gambling game

Em — 16 August at 09:19PM

Quick tidy:

Dee and I in trashy Murrayside town for gambling game

DA — 17 August at 06:56AM

Took me a while to decipher, Em, even WITH the answer. For the geographically challenged, there is a fleabite town named TOOLEBUC on the Murray. A nice fluke, but jeez that's hard!

Em — 17 August at 08:42AM

Thanks DA. I didn't realise how obscure the reference was - growing up in northern Vic, I constantly heard the slogan 'Try your luck at Tooleybuc' (hence the overworked first clue attempt).