TMQ105 -- What's the Rest of Me Doing There?

[blaqlives]

Discussion of The Magic Quill #105 -- What's the Rest of Me Doing There? by Robbie Fischer.

[PotterPig]

Survey - false
Goblin name - Crookchin

[Norman_Greene]

Survey: True
Goblin name: Hangnail

[zanaboo]

SURVEY: True or False: In today’s environment-friendly society, witches and wizards should pay a tax on the use of magical power.

False. Just the thought of such a thing makes me wonder what the world's coming to! After all, magical power is drawn directly from the aether, so although some spells can be harmful, magical power itself has no known adverse effects on the environment. In fact, it's widely believed in the magical community that the frequent use of magical power is the only thing that's keeping Earth's ecosphere going at this point.

CONTEST: Come up with an original name for a Gringotts goblin. (Examples to follow include: Griphook, Dewclaw, Nailspike, Chokechain, Undergrim, Bilejug, Sawtooth, Spleengraft, Jugshard, Bashmace, and Ripsnarl. Of course, you need not follow any examples at all!)

Razorburn - Gotta watch out for him, 'cause he can really hurt you.
Toadwart - homage to Trevor and Hogwarts
Vaultpawl - A pawl is a sliding bolt that that falls into a notch or space. In other words, he's the bolt in the lock that binds all the Gringotts' goblins together. With a name that fancy, I'm guessing he's the CEO.
Lynchpin - Vaultpawl's administrative assistant.
Numskull - not too bright
Rotbreath - Gringotts officials actually spent money (well, muggle money) on him recently - for Altoids - not because they were personally offended by his breath, but because it had gotten so bad, it was melting various bits of metal around the bank.
Barbtongue - He's far too quick-witted, egotistical about it, and therefore universally hated for it.
Torchrag - bad luck around fires, that one
Winzebind - A winze is a curse, so as the chief curse-binder, I'm guessing he's also the CFO.
Morthorn - A mort is a note sounded on a hunting horn when a deer is killed. Morthorn tends to get overly excited whenever he finds a dead body.
Rockfall - homage to the dangers of driving on Interstate 70 through the Rocky Mountains - I'd say Rockfall has a bad reputation for being... unpredictable. You never know what he's gonna do next - or when.
Halflimb - homage to Halflife
Old Lampeyes - Gringotts' ghost Goblin - homage to Old Lodge Skins in the movie Little Big Man
Foulfang - He tends to use a lot of 4-letter words (...err, euphemistically speaking, since I don't know how many letters the words actually have in Gobbledygook).
Bootlick - the biggest brown (or is it black?) nose in the bank
Blackstrap - homage to mom's homemade biscuits, with molasses on top - He tends to get himself into sticky situations.
Anodyne - Gringotts' doctor - aye, if you don't get this one, you should look up anodyne - I'd say he's not much of a healer (in the wizarding sense), since his favored form of anesthesia is to whack 'em in the head with a huge mallet, to knock 'em unconscious.
Lockjaw - He doesn't say much.

Thanks, Robbie -- This was the most fun I've had in a coon's age. ;-)

[jatibbal]

Survey: False. If anything it should be considered a health issue, not an environmental one. Imagine the consequences of sneezing into a very tempermental potion! Or what if you had a headache while practicing occlumency? Both of you'd end up with migraines for weeks!!
Contest: Kreakjoint, Bootblack, and Fluffersparkles (he doesn't have many friends).

[Linda_Carrig]

False: there is no way to tax something that is inherently part of a human being. It would be like taxing muggles for the air they breathe.
As for goblin names, I think there have been so many great entrys so far! Let me think.... Mudhook, Scythefinger, Rockaxe, Screwfoot to name a few.

[Celairiel]

Absolutely false. Taxes on magic would be immpossible to keep track of for one thing. Just immagine: "Honey, I'm paying our taxes, but I can't remember how many 5 knut spells you preformed this year. Any guesses?"

Hmmm... I don't know about this one, I am starting to compile a list extremely similar to zanaboo's. Not like the names are the same, but just that each one has a story. I don't know where it is right now though...

[rory86]

survey: FALSE. being a wizard (per se) is not related to make any damage to the enviroment.

contest:
- meclaw: he tends to be mean with almost everyone, except when he realizes that he would get benefits from being nice, polite and correct.

-cascrak: he´s double personality. one day he´s a warrior who wants to save the world (from whoever he thinks he´s trying to conquer it) and the other, he´s a CEO who makes his own rules and puts off the way everyone who disagrees with him wihtout feeling any guilt.

-elrock: he´s one of cascrak´s favorite tarquets, (when he´s the CEO). he takes it with bravery and grace, amd just does his work as well as he can, sometimes this makes cascrak angry.

[Dragonic]

False

Okay some names

Cacklejoint
Bloodknot
Redstone
Thunderlock
Icefist

And some more...

Headlock
Haphazard
Redrum
Man, I had another one. I'll add it if I can remember it.

[_houdini]

False... magic is like walking, talking, doing stuff in muggles. it is the very reason wizards exists, i can't possibly imagine tax on every spell, every potion made. Then in this case wouldn't students also have to pay when they attend lessons??

Bloodeye
Wringkle
Punchhag
Goldcracker
Stompheel
Gnashbash
Stonedface
Boulderfist
Kacklehiss
Gagnag
Dumbum
Znorehall
Snotnot
Fistface
Shacklebolt

[FishEByrd]

Here are Elizabeth's answers to the Double Challenge, sent to me via the Feedback system:

Ok, so here are a few goblin names. Hope you like 'em.

1. Numitor (means 'unknown')
2. Nuada (means 'protector' in Celtic)
3. Orpheus (meaning 'the darkness of night')
4. Mokosh (meaning 'wet or moist'- appropriate, don't you think?)
5. Fachtna (means 'hostile' in Irish Gaelic)
6. Freyr (means 'lord' in Old Norse)
7. Gaia (means 'earth' in Greek)
8. Gawain (means 'white hawk', also Sir Gawain was one of my favorite nights of the Round Table. A really good series was written about him, you should read it. It's called the Squire's Tale series. It's really good. I already said that, but you know, just trying to emphasise my point. Sorry if I can't spell, by the way, but all the names are spelled right, so I wouldn't worry about that. Ok? Ok.)
9. Eurig (means 'gold' in Welsh)
10. Mr. Tin! kles (from my own brain... yeah... maybe not.)