Fellow addicts,
Herewith are a baker's dozen definitions of UVALA. A true dozen of them are the products of your collective creativity. The thirteenth is, of course, its real meaning. Can you find the rose among thorns? Let us know by voting for two of them by the deadline, just under 36 hours from now:
Boston, USA Fri, Feb 6, 2026 at 9:00 pm EST
Chicago, USA Fri, Feb 6, 2026 at 8:00 pm CST
Los Angeles, USA Fri, Feb 6, 2026 at 6:00 pm PST
Wellington, NZ Sat, Feb 7, 2026 at 3:00 pm NZDT
Paris, France Sat, Feb 7, 2026 at 3:00 am CET
London, UK Sat, Feb 7, 2026 at 2:00 am GMT
There's a good chance that I may not be back from a late-ish dinner by then, so feel free to vote after that time if you haven't seen the results yet. In the other direction, I may close voting early if all those who submitted definitions have voted. So, if you didn't submit one but want to vote, either vote early or let me know that you plan to so I'll keep the polls open.
If you recognize the meaning of UVALA on seeing the list, please let me know that too.
The candidates, in order by character count (which may not correspond to visual length in your email display font):
1. A recurring low point in circumstances.
2. [Swe.] An assortment of cookies served to guests.
3. The leather mounting for an oar on a Viking longboat.
4. [Rare] Two or more elisions in the same word, as in foc's'le.
5. A straight-horned African antelope that lives in open woodland and grassland.
6. [Hist.] A Norse funeral in which the deceased was sent out to sea in a burning longship.
7. A small wooden spacer used in traditional loom frames to keep warp threads evenly separated.
8. A twine produced from a Central American plant cultivated for its leaves that yield coarse fibers.
9. A large elongated sinkhole resulting from enlargement and coalescence of a linear group of small sinkholes.
10. A West African dish of boiled and ground plantain, yam or cassava, made into dough balls to go with soups or stews.
11. An internal lesion that sometimes develop in severe cases of shingles in the torso and may cause abdominal pain for weeks after external shingles clear; often uvalae.
12. In Croatia, a small beach or cove concealed within a high-sided inlet, that can be approached only by boat, and that provides a discreet venue for romantic encounters.
13. A place in the underworld where people rest immediately after death waiting for the things given to them at their funeral rites in the world above. When they know what they have got they can then go to their appropriate place [Estonian Mythology]
Vote on, my friends!
Efrem