Sandbag or go for it?

Hiddlebiddle is the possibly misspelled last name of a Zonesman whose sandbagging ways were so unbelievably egregious that the term has come, in its own way, to be as emblematic of the sandbagging phenomenon as the Earl of Sandwich's favorite lunchtime snack has become for bread-enveloped foodstuffs. I signed up for the 100 freestyle at CZ SCY championships last spring with my fastest time to date of the year: a 53.35. I noted that I was seeded first in my heat, next to a Mr. Hiddlebiddle, who had signed up with a 53.8 or possibly even a low 54. Curious about the speed of Mr. Hiddlebiddle, I looked up his other entries and saw that he had entered a 23.05 in the 50 fly, and a 1:30 in the 100 I.M. It occurred to me that the poor man must have a seizure disorder, perhaps some odd variant on Sydenham's Chorea, AKA, St. Vitus's Dance, an offshoot of the Jumping Frenchmen of Maine Syndrome, one that caused him to alternate incredibly fast swims with incredibly slow swims. But as I was to learn in that meet, as he kicked pints of water down my gullet within the first 12 yards of the race, as he was swimming en route to his 47 or 48 finish, he was not neurologically impaired, at least not in the sense I had imagined (palsies, narcolepsies, and whatnot.) Rather, he was merely Hiddlebiddling. The phenomenon is hardly new, but a new and memorable term for it was born right then and there, in the midst of my own choking, sputtering, humiliating, misery. Note: the lapped septuagenarians in the 100 IM were even more surprised than I was. Kristina, your husband is, in a way, correct: the verb "to Hiddlebiddle" is one that I am associated with. But I did not coin the term per se, only identified and extended its usage from noun to verb, much as William Shakespeare is credited with taking the noun "ruin" (which in his day only meant crumbling pillars and other such architectural relics) and used it metaphorically, and for the first time, as a way to describe what happens when a person is subjected to horrible misadventures and reversals of fortune, i.e., "ruined." If you have ever been gagged by water kicked down your gullet in the course of being Hiddlebiddled, you will, of course, recognize both these terms, the Thorntonic and the Shakespearic. I am considering adding yet another such extended use noun-to-verb term to the swimmer's lexicon: i.e., to Ulveling someone. For those of you who may have missed my recent vlog, "Is CreamPuff Using Me?", you can watch a very speedy woman swimmer named Eva Braun getting severely Ulvelinged by clicking here: forums.usms.org/blog.php It's enough to make poor Eva consider Hiddlebiddling at her next meet. Note: thanks to Mermaid for mentioning the term "hiddlebiddling" earlier in the thread and, like a medieval monk salvaging knowledge in his palimpsest for posterity, keeping the word from slipping away entirely from the human knowledge base. I am sure that Mr. Hiddlebiddle is delighted you were able to keep this from happening!

Hiddlebiddle is the possibly misspelled last name of a Zonesman whose sandbagging ways were so unbelievably egregious that the term has come, in its own way, to be as emblematic of the sandbagging phenomenon as the Earl of Sandwich's favorite lunchtime snack has become for bread-enveloped foodstuffs. I signed up for the 100 freestyle at CZ SCY championships last spring with my fastest time to date of the year: a 53.35. I noted that I was seeded first in my heat, next to a Mr. Hiddlebiddle, who had signed up with a 53.8 or possibly even a low 54. Curious about the speed of Mr. Hiddlebiddle, I looked up his other entries and saw that he had entered a 23.05 in the 50 fly, and a 1:30 in the 100 I.M. It occurred to me that the poor man must have a seizure disorder, perhaps some odd variant on Sydenham's Chorea, AKA, St. Vitus's Dance, an offshoot of the Jumping Frenchmen of Maine Syndrome, one that caused him to alternate incredibly fast swims with incredibly slow swims. But as I was to learn in that meet, as he kicked pints of water down my gullet within the first 12 yards of the race, as he was swimming en route to his 47 or 48 finish, he was not neurologically impaired, at least not in the sense I had imagined (palsies, narcolepsies, and whatnot.) Rather, he was merely Hiddlebiddling. The phenomenon is hardly new, but a new and memorable term for it was born right then and there, in the midst of my own choking, sputtering, humiliating, misery. Note: the lapped septuagenarians in the 100 IM were even more surprised than I was. Kristina, your husband is, in a way, correct: the verb "to Hiddlebiddle" is one that I am associated with. But I did not coin the term per se, only identified and extended its usage from noun to verb, much as William Shakespeare is credited with taking the noun "ruin" (which in his day only meant crumbling pillars and other such architectural relics) and used it metaphorically, and for the first time, as a way to describe what happens when a person is subjected to horrible misadventures and reversals of fortune, i.e., "ruined." If you have ever been gagged by water kicked down your gullet in the course of being Hiddlebiddled, you will, of course, recognize both these terms, the Thorntonic and the Shakespearic. I am considering adding yet another such extended use noun-to-verb term to the swimmer's lexicon: i.e., to Ulveling someone. For those of you who may have missed my recent vlog, "Is CreamPuff Using Me?", you can watch a very speedy woman swimmer named Eva Braun getting severely Ulvelinged by clicking here: forums.usms.org/blog.php It's enough to make poor Eva consider Hiddlebiddling at her next meet. Note: thanks to Mermaid for mentioning the term "hiddlebiddling" earlier in the thread and, like a medieval monk salvaging knowledge in his palimpsest for posterity, keeping the word from slipping away entirely from the human knowledge base. I am sure that Mr. Hiddlebiddle is delighted you were able to keep this from happening!