This blivet is reminiscent of an
M.C. Escher print—it portrays two irreconciliable
perspectives at once, creating a "lost" layer between the top two rods, and an
impossible extra, vanishing rod in between the bottom two.
A blivet, also known as a poiuyt, is an undecipherable figure, an optical
illusion and an impossible object. It appears to have three cylindrical prongs
at one end which then mysteriously transform into two rectangular prongs at the other end.
Blivet has numerous other meanings, explained below.
Paradoxical graphic figure
In its most common usage, the blivet is an indecipherable figure, illustrated above. It appeared on the March 1965 cover of
Mad magazine, where it was dubbed the "poiuyt" (the last six letters on the top
row of the typewriter keyboard, right to left), and has appeared numerous times since then.
An anonymously-contributed version described as a "hole location gauge" was printed in the June 1964 issue of Analog Science Fiction and Fact, with the comment that "this outrageous piece of
draftsmanship evidently escaped from the Finagle & Diddle Engineering Works".
The object is commonly depicted with two similarly impossible objects - the Rectabular Excrusion
Bracket and the Ambihelical Hexnut; in such a grouping, this object is usually labeled a
"Trichotometric Indicator Support".[citation needed]
Military usage
In traditional U.S. Army slang dating back to the Second World War, a blivet was defined as "ten pounds of manure in a five pound bag" (a proverbial
description of anything egregiously ugly or unmanageable); it was applied to an unmanageable situation, a crucial but substandard
or damaged tool, or a self-important person. In Cormac McCarthy's All the Pretty Horses, Rawlins defines a blivet as "10 pounds of shit in a 5 pound bag".
During the Vietnam conflict, a heavy rubber bladder in which aviation fuel or POL (petroleum, oil, and lubricants) was transported was known as a blivet, as was
anything which, once unpacked, could not be replaced in its container. The usage of blivet for a fuel container is still current.
A recent request for quotation for materials for a "fuel point" in Afghanistan includes a line item for "10 50,000 gal.
blivets".[citation needed]
In various United States Air Force communities (e.g. Strategic Air Command), blivet may have referred to what are euphemistically called
"Special Weapons" whose presence are officially neither confirmed nor denied. Usage
apparently derived from the original cavalry definition.
In some areas of the U.S., it refers to a juvenile prank, clearly connected with the original military usage: a sack full of
excrement is ignited on the victim's porch, while the pranksters ring the doorbell and run. The victim attempts to put the flames
out by stamping on the bag. This may also be related to the term's claimed use as military slang for a land mine, not well-documented.
Technological usage
Among computer programmers, a blivet refers to any embarrassing glitch that pops up during
a customer demonstration. Among computer security specialists, it can refer to a denial-of-service attack performed by monopolizing limited resources that have no access
controls (for example, shared spool space on a multi-user system). There are other meanings in
other technical cultures; among experimental physicists and hardware engineers it may designate any random object of unknown
purpose (similar to hackers' use of frob).
Early versions of Adobe Photoshop used a blivet on the plugin icon.
"Placeholder" usage
The word blivet is sometimes used as a cadigan. In economics, the term may be used (like "widget") for some
hypothetical product. Butler Manufacturing Services Ltd, in Longford, Ireland, has used the trade name "BMS
Blivet" for over 15 years for their compact "all in one" sewage treatment plant.
Common Southern usage
"Blivet" is often used in the Southern United States as a self-descriptor when one has failed to adhere to a healthy and
reasonably nutritious eating plan (e.g., "I feel like a stuffed blivet."). The origin of this usage cannot be determined, but
dates back certainly to the 1940s in the northern Alabama hill country[citation needed].
Alternative names
- Ambiguous trident
- Devil's pitchfork
- Devil's tuning fork
- Hole location gauge
- Mark III blivet
- Poiuyt
- Three-legged widget
- Three pronged blivet
- Trichotometric indicator support
- Two-pronged trident
- The Impossible Magnet[citation needed]
- Widget
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