Wapsi Square Forum

In law enforcement parlance, a "cowboy" is a criminal (or group of the) who tends to do everything loudly and violently, with little pre-planning and a lot of improvising.

I.e., entire plan consists of entering the bank, firing a shotgun blast into the ceiling and improvising from there. Cowboys are the ones most likely to take hostages inside the bank they have no chance of escaping alive if shooting starts when things go south on them (which they often do), and demanding a million dollars, a jet to Brazil and a gallon of mint chocolate chip ice cream.

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In espionage, a "cowboy" is a free-wheeling fast-moving field agent. (For those who read my brother's books, think of Victor Cachat - who is, BTW, Eric Flint's character).

Generally a master of Xanatos Speed Chess.

Fairportfan wrote:Generally a master of Xanatos Speed Chess.

Evil Fairportfan!

First rule of tvtropes: you do not link to tvtropes. Because that's evil.

Atomic wrote:

Bookworm wrote:

mrsmack wrote:My dictionary says cowpuncher (one word) means "a cowboy." Can anyone explain this term in this context to me? I've never heard it before.

Independent troubleshooter or problem solver.

Yes, but keep in mind the European concept of "Cowboy" is very different than the American one.

The American Cowboy view is an ideal - independent, self-sufficient, and reliable. Well, usually reliable, though occasionally prone to wild adventure of some kind (re: bar fight).

The European Cowboy view is renegade, self-centered, and careless. Your basic untrustworthy hell-raiser - all bar fight and no cattle drive.

[... anecdotal evidence snipped ...]

I'm pretty sure I've seen the term "cowboy coder" used by americans too. But probably (as Shneekey drawled/twanged (not sure which) so eloquently) they were city folk.

Jürgen A. Erhard wrote:I'm pretty sure I've seen the term "cowboy coder" used by americans too. But probably (as Shneekey drawled/twanged (not sure which) so eloquently) they were city folk.

For that matter, i'm one of what some people refer to as a "cowboy" in the computer field (hardware, mostly); there's essentially a whole generation of us who helped invent the field and learnt it as we created it.

ShneekeyTheLost wrote:

Otpu wrote:Why, ye call an' American a Yankee, that's common practice out in England. You call a feller Yaknee south of th' Mason-Dixon line... yer liable t' get th' loan of his very second best Colt .45, jest so he won't be said to have shot an unarmed man.

Fixed it for you.

Otpu

Oh goodness no. Bein' a southern gentleman, you loan your very best gun, and you USE your second best gun to shoot him. That's called givin' him a sportin' chance.

Damn skippy! That's the only way to do it right.

Jürgen A. Erhard wrote:

Fairportfan wrote:Generally a master of Xanatos Speed Chess.

Evil Fairportfan!

First rule of tvtropes: you do not link to tvtropes. Because that's evil.

Now now, it's not the linking that's evil, it's the lack of warning, such as this:

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Julie wrote:

ShneekeyTheLost wrote:

Otpu wrote:Why, ye call an' American a Yankee, that's common practice out in England. You call a feller Yaknee south of th' Mason-Dixon line... yer liable t' get th' loan of his very second best Colt .45, jest so he won't be said to have shot an unarmed man.

Fixed it for you.

Otpu

Oh goodness no. Bein' a southern gentleman, you loan your very best gun, and you USE your second best gun to shoot him. That's called givin' him a sportin' chance.

Damn skippy! That's the only way to do it right.

Welll, if you're going to do it right you proffer him an exquisite hardwood box with brass fixtures open it and there upon the deep crushed blue velvet interior lie two richly carved and engraved pistols and you give him the choice of which to use. Of course, I'm more of the shoot don't talk mindset: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTcBgs2huRo

Dave wrote:

kingklash wrote:I'm related to the real Wahnee family, and you bet your bippy I'm invested in my imaginary cousin.

Kinglash - can you describe the traditional naming-inheritance conventions among the Comanche for me? Do children usually inherit their father's family name, or their mother's? Do women adopt their husband's family name?

I can't recall for sure if we've ever been entirely certain which side of Shelly's family (or both?) her Comanche heritage is derived from. I skimmed some of the books this weekend, and still couldn't tell. Her father (when portrayed) was referred to as "Mr. Wahnee" at least once, but I couldn't tell from his face whether he was clearly of Native American heritage or not.

Can anybody reading this point me to a sequence in the archives which clarifies this? It'd be interesting to know whether Bia was masquerading as a Comanche girl, or simply as an Anglo or other European girl living in a part-Comanche community.

Well, these days, most of my ethnicity uses the standard father's-name Anglo-style convention. The last name may be the only thing to change, depending on when/how the Gov'ment dealt with you. On my Dad's side, they couldn't spell or rightly pronounce the Choctaw name "Achainatubbe", so after a bit of research, we were named "James". There are two main James families in the tribe, but we aren't related. My Arapaho side had it better. The name transliterated directly to "White Shirt", so Whiteshirt it became. On my Mom's side, there were four Kiowa brothers who worked in town after it was founded. As is the usual way, each brother had their own Kiowa name, no surname. But they did adopt english first names, to make it easier for others. When it came time for getting land, and other things, the local Angency knew they were all descenants of Mauchauty, but again, pronounciation and spelling an unwritten name came into play. But the brothers did have a collective nickname. Since they worked together at a warehouse, they were called the Warehouse Brothers. They got the surname Ware. The Comanche side already used Pewo as a family name, easy enough, so that became the official name for us. The Wares and Pewos are fairly large families, so I'm related to a lot of others in each tribe, including the Wahnees. I haven't had the chance to mention this strip to them.

No telling how Bia arranged things. Minnesota is kinda out of the way for Comanches to be, we usually stick to the Oklahoma/Texas portion of the Plains. But since my parents had signed up for a employment relocation program in the late 60's, and moved to Oakland, California after I was born in '69, maybe Bia (possibly through the BIA, I wouldn't put it past her) used the same, and got Shelly's folks to go north to isolate the family more to stack the deck in her favor.

kingklash wrote:

Dave wrote:

kingklash wrote:I'm related to the real Wahnee family, and you bet your bippy I'm invested in my imaginary cousin.

Kinglash - can you describe the traditional naming-inheritance conventions among the Comanche for me? Do children usually inherit their father's family name, or their mother's? Do women adopt their husband's family name?

I can't recall for sure if we've ever been entirely certain which side of Shelly's family (or both?) her Comanche heritage is derived from. I skimmed some of the books this weekend, and still couldn't tell. Her father (when portrayed) was referred to as "Mr. Wahnee" at least once, but I couldn't tell from his face whether he was clearly of Native American heritage or not.

Can anybody reading this point me to a sequence in the archives which clarifies this? It'd be interesting to know whether Bia was masquerading as a Comanche girl, or simply as an Anglo or other European girl living in a part-Comanche community.

Well, these days, most of my ethnicity uses the standard father's-name Anglo-style convention. The last name may be the only thing to change, depending on when/how the Gov'ment dealt with you. On my Dad's side, they couldn't spell or rightly pronounce the Choctaw name "Achainatubbe", so after a bit of research, we were named "James". There are two main James families in the tribe, but we aren't related. My Arapaho side had it better. The name transliterated directly to "White Shirt", so Whiteshirt it became. On my Mom's side, there were four Kiowa brothers who worked in town after it was founded. As is the usual way, each brother had their own Kiowa name, no surname. But they did adopt english first names, to make it easier for others. When it came time for getting land, and other things, the local Angency knew they were all descenants of Mauchauty, but again, pronounciation and spelling an unwritten name came into play. But the brothers did have a collective nickname. Since they worked together at a warehouse, they were called the Warehouse Brothers. They got the surname Ware. The Comanche side already used Pewo as a family name, easy enough, so that became the official name for us. The Wares and Pewos are fairly large families, so I'm related to a lot of others in each tribe, including the Wahnees. I haven't had the chance to mention this strip to them.

No telling how Bia arranged things. Minnesota is kinda out of the way for Comanches to be, we usually stick to the Oklahoma/Texas portion of the Plains. But since my parents had signed up for a employment relocation program in the late 60's, and moved to Oakland, California after I was born in '69, maybe Bia (possibly through the BIA, I wouldn't put it past her) used the same, and got Shelly's folks to go north to isolate the family more to stack the deck in her favor.

By any chance are you working as Comanche expert/consultant for Paul? that actually sounds extremely viable..... also what is it with Minnesota? could it be that there is a magnet for supernatural forces? or is it just M drawing all the weirdos?

lake_wrangler wrote:

Jürgen A. Erhard wrote:

Fairportfan wrote:Generally a master of Xanatos Speed Chess.

Evil Fairportfan!

First rule of tvtropes: you do not link to tvtropes. Because that's evil.

Now now, it's not the linking that's evil, it's the lack of warning, such as this:

Warning: tvtropes will ruin your lives. Enter at your own risk!

It can ruin your liver too
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