mataglap -- an Indonesian word meaning "dark eye" or, probably, "dilated eye." It is an indication that someone is about to go berserk and start killing people at random. Used in Walter Jon Williams' novel Aristoi as the name of a berserk form of nanotechnology that devoured the planet.

You can e-mail Mataglap SF at mataglap@yahoo.com

 
One humorous aspect to Floyd's miracle comeback has been the fact that he said after his terrible performance on La Toussuire that he was going to go have a beer. Then after his incredible victory in Morzine, he mentioned beer again. This was picked up by Patrick O'Grady, one of the columnists on velonews.com in Beer me, Floyd.

Asked why he kept calling for water, more water, alternately drinking it and pouring it over his head, Landis quipped: "It was very hot. Maybe that was the explanation, or maybe it was the beer I had last night."

The obvious question, which nobody thought to ask, was "What kind of beer was it?" O'Grady goes on to say:

Oh, it's maddening, I tell you. I could be a six-pack away from cycling success - I just don't know which six-pack has the killer legs in it.

leaving him to conclude he'll have to find out for himself by systematically trying every kind of beer in alphabetical order until he hits upon the right one.

A follow up letter from one of the site's readers explained it all, though:

The Landis beer thing got quite a bit of attention from the Dutch and Belgian press as well. One of them is obviously on your wavelength because someone asked about his beer and he said, "By the way, that was an Amstel." They showed that clip on the nightly Tour round up on Flemish TV and the announcer said that therefore Landis had not been drinking beer at all (because weak Dutch beer is not quite beer - get it?). It was pretty funny.

If I was Amstel, I'd be calling Landis's agent pronto! "Just one Amstel, and I trashed the peloton on the tour's hardest stage and won by 6 minutes!" By next year's tour, it'll be a competition to see who's more hammered, the fans on Alpe d'Huez, or the riders themselves.
posted by Mark at 1:54 PM