Mike & Joy,

Jerry rigged is what the producers in the Jerry Springer shows do
before the guest go on stage.

Respectfully yours,
BenT Logjick

On Sat, 25 Sep 2004 02:17:47 -0400, Mike Miller <mwmiller@cwnet.com> wrote:
> Well, since you asked...
>
> Joe Hakkapelliitta had a sister, Jerry.  Italian Finns are a little vague on gender differentiation by conventional means,
> including names, they usually use stick on tags as you see at big parties and conventions only reading BOY, or GIRL, or
> NOT YET DETERMINED.  As you can see an open minded people.
>
> Stay with me here as this all is pertinent to the explanation of "Jerry-rigged."
>
> Anyway Jerry was riding her Segway People Mover around Florence one day [Florence her twin sister was a tad on the
> overweight side so it was a good idea to use motorized transport to get around her, they were actually located in Maranello,
> as was the remainder of the Hakkapelliitta family.  They all worked at Ferrari building Vanagens.  You didn't know Ferrari
> built Vanagens?  Well it does.  That explains the acceleration, they put it all in the cars with little to none left over for the
> Vans.  It's not an accident that the engine in a 512 TestaRosa looks just like a Van engine.  Again you will have to pay
> attention, this is not fluff but central to our story.]  Anyway she was riding around Florence [remember the twin sister?  Yes,
> I'm sure you do] and she got lost and ended up in Finland with twin brother Joe.  [One of the reasons there are so many
> Hakkapelliitta's in Maranello is this tendency towards twin.  I believe the University of Fiarenza {SP?} is studying this as we
> speak.  But I digress this has nothing to do with the origin of the word 'Jerry-rigged']
>
> Well, Joe had the tire market pretty well locked up and Jerry didn't much care for Finland anyway as her Segway kept falling
> into holes in the snow.  This was in the summer as in the winter it's not possible to fall in the holes in the snow are there are
> none.  [Darn, another digression]  Anyway Jerry decided to go back to Southern Finland, also known as Italy in some
> quarters.  But while she had been tooling around falling into snow holes the land bridge across the Baltic Sea had
> submerged again [Sneaky old land bridge, eh?]  So Jerry had to go by way of Russia.
>
> Now Russia, or East Italy, was not a hot bed of Segway technology in those days of Communism and Soviets and all that so
> when her people mover had a bit of a problem there really was no help available.  So Jerry [pay attention now we're getting
> to the good part] took apart a T 34 tank that had been kind of wrecked when the Germans [also known as Jerrys in some
> locales] had tried to establish closer relations with the Russians.  See the Germans, from Germany or North kind of East
> Italy as its general known, had the idea that they could impress the Russians with their engineering knowledge by showing
> off their military, which they did.  But it left a lot of wrecked tanks and such.  By luck the T 34 used the exact same part that
> had broken on the Segway.  Well, almost exact.  Turns out the the badge on the front of the Segway was pretty close to a
> tread from the track of the T 34.  So Jerry took out her nail file and modified it to fit.
>
> Hence the term 'jerry-rigged.'  Of course it didn't work very well, actually at all and Jerry was stuck with a 'jerry-rigged'
> Segway in Russia.  That gave rise to the secondary meaning of 'jerry' as in 'jerry built.'  None of his would have mattered
> except that Jerry met Stalin while she was filing down the tank tread.  Who was so impressed with her industriousness that
> he wowed, and won her.  As a tribute to his new bride he encouraged [I believe free trips to Siberia were mentioned
> prominently] the Russians, or North Eastern Italians to use the term 'Jerry-rigged' any time they mentioned an almost fixed
> Segway People Mover.  Naturally this usage spread to Italy North, Italy a little North and kind of East and Italy, and thus to
> the rest of the world.  Including the van list.
>
> At least that's how Unca Joel explained it to me but in blank verse of course and woven into the legend of Beowulf.
>
> Clear now?
>
> Mike
>
> Formerly Sacramento [I was asked to leave] and now of Fairfax [I was asked not to come]
>
> On 9/24/04 8:55 PM, "Joy Hecht" <jhecht@ALUM.MIT.EDU> wrote:
>
> > Yes, PLEASE!  Re explaining jerry rigged, I mean.  Quick, while it's still
> > Friday!
> >
> >
> > Joy