Date:  Tue, 6 Feb 1996 23:12:47 -0700

From:  Rudy Troike <RTROIKE[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]CCIT.ARIZONA.EDU>

Subject: Anybody know of a reference on "birdcage" = schedule ?



Can anybody help with this inquiry?





From:  UACCIT::CTB     "Carl Berkhout" 6-FEB-1996 23:06

To:   UACCIT::RTROIKE



Rudy--



I'm preparing to send a meaning of "birdcage" off to Jeffery

Triggs at the OED. But I have found no written citation of it. I have

heard it only in England and only twice, in Oxbridge circles, in the

past 4 or 5 years. Pat Collinson, Simon Keynes, and I discussed the

term at a Trinity College, Cambridge, dinner a couple of years ago, but

we were all rather puzzled.



Anyway, a "birdcage" is the piece of paper, with blocks of time marked

out, that you are supposed to return to a secretary or to whomever to

indicate, say, when you might be free for a meeting. You must draw an X

or whatever in the blocks of time that you will not be free and you must

then send your birdcage back to the secretary. The two usages that I

heard were something like



"Please complete this birdcage and return it as soon as possible."



"I'd have rescheduled the meeting if you had sent me your birdcage on

time."



Does anyone on the ADS list know this usage? Can the Brits on this list

help with comments or documentation?



Carl