HW: Need Definitions

[Paul Mather]

HERBERT119 at DELPHI.COM writes:

> A. What the hell is a "battery hen"? They're not too adept at
> flying, I presume? Perhaps a mechanical wind-up toy?

Battery hens are probably best known as "factory farmed" hens in the
USA.  They are hens which are dramatically confined in tiny cages and
live only to lay eggs, production-line fashion.  There are also "barn"
hens and "free range" hens (in ascending order of non-cruelty).  See
Jill's post on the phrase "battery hen" from way back for exhaustive
detail.

Anyway, it makes the imagery all the more striking---the clone
ultimately likening himself to an anonymous battery hen.  Great line!

> C. "Suss" - After hearing this in several HW songs (but never
> anywhere else), I've gathered it means to "understand",
> "comprehend", or maybe to "deal with", etc... Common British
> slang term?

Yes, you sussed it. :-)  (It means "understand," "comprehend,"
"figure out," etc.)

Cheers,

Paul.

obCD: Frank Zappa, _Burnt Weeny Sandwich_

e-mail: paul at csgrad.cs.vt.edu                    A stranger in a strange land.

"Why, even this doggerel that flows from my pen
 Has just been written by another
 Twenty [thousand] telepathic men
 It says, ``Oh for the wings of any bird
 Other than a battery hen...''
 And that's the spirit of the age"

        --- Hawkwind, "Spirit Of The Age," _Quark, Strangeness and Charm_