What is Darfing, Anyway?

I stumbled across some interesting information today over at Making Light about a new venture by our friends at a certain vanity publisher who shall not be named. Read this first, and then come back here.

http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/012212.html

In specific, from the letter the publisher sent to their authors in 2005, they claim that they are going to beat the other publishers, presumably the big New York publishers, by "darfing" them. In the comments you'll see that no one quite understands what darfing means. I've listed 13 possible definitions for darfing and I thought you guys could vote on which one is most likely. Except you can't pick #1, it's no fun.

Darfing is:

1) A typo (dwarfing, darling, darkening, barfing, darning)

2) Sneaking around behind somebody and fully intending to nip at their heels, but chickening out, so they don't even realize you're there

3) The act of squeezing a soft substance (like cheese or a brain) until it has fingerprints in it

4) A type of tea in which the leaves are steeped with ipecac syrup

5) Something furries do, and we shan't speak of it

6) A city in alternate universe Wisconsin that's home to the world's largest darf sculpture

7) Diving for fish, but instead of using a spear you use a mechanical grabber hand, such as the E-Z Grabber or the Norpro Long Arm Grabber. Darfers hotly debate which brand of implement works best.

8) A combination of barking and vomiting, most often used when describing how insane someone is or what happens when you have a really bad stomach virus, one.

9) When you're supposed to be doing your homework, but instead you lay on the ground with your feet on the bed and read an old magazine, not the kind with nudie pictures but the other kind.

10) An architectural term used to describe a type of crenellation which....yeah, I got nothing.

11) When you're cooking and forget the pot is on the stove because you're on the internet or something and you ruin dinner.

12) The sound of a cat's claw piercing and ripping a windowscreen that was supposedly pet proof.

13) Like Sunday driving (an aimless pleasure drive), only instead of doing it in a nice car with good company, you do it in a car that's likely to break down any minute while fighting with your passengers, plus you get lost in a really bad neighborhood.

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Vote in the comments or tell me what it REALLY means.

Jody W.
www.jodywallace.com * www.meankitty.com