Pronunciation: &b-'stre-p(&-)r&s, äb-
Function: adjective
Etymology: Latin obstreperus, from obstrepere to clamor against, from ob- against + strepere to make a noise,
Date: circa 1600
1 : marked by unruly or aggressive noisiness : CLAMOROUS <obstreperous merriment>
2 : stubbornly resistant to control : UNRULY,
synonym see VOCIFEROUS
- ob·strep·er·ous·ly adverb
- ob·strep·er·ous·ness noun

On this day, and yes you only get one day of the year to do it, you can be as unruly, as aggressive, and as stubborn as you like. Lord help any whozlots, NHstud1216s, or Team Rockets that arrive that day. Choose your day wisely. You may like to allocate your mother-in-law's birthday as your Obstreperous Day, or if Christmas Day is always a trial, make it your Obstreperous Day and then everyone will know you have an excuse.

Possible unfortunate side-effects: 1. the preceding weeks or months may have extra tension as you await the day you can release the pressure. 2. Chance would have it that you work for a boss with the same Obs Day - beware of job-risking arguments. This is one case where the Obstreperous Day Registration Office may accept an application for date changing. [World leaders, esp. those with nuclear weapons at their disposal, are exempted from the usual time-consuming date changing process, in the interests of world safety.]
-- lewisgirl, Jun 19 2001

Red Hour http://www.scifi.co...ek/episodes/22.html
Rmutt is vaguely embarassed about knowing this. [rmutt, Jun 19 2001, last modified Oct 21 2004]

It's official... http://www.democrat...dia/99/991118_a.htm
...[UnaBubba]'s government couldn't run a chook raffle. [angel, Jun 19 2001, last modified Oct 21 2004]

'olyan lutri, ahol a nyeremény egy csirke' http://maxi.inf.elt.../ozpage/szotar.html
Further explanation of 'chook raffle' [angel, Jun 19 2001, last modified Oct 21 2004]

You could alternatively push for a single obstreperous day for everyone, and possibly implement legal restrictions on firing people (or otherwise holding them responsible?) for arguments on said day.

This would be slightly less fun, but it would mean less beaurocracy in the registration phase. Also, would the Obs Day Registration Office be a US-only beast? If not, organising such a thing internationally with the agreement of many governments (of which, at the very least, the UK, US and Australian governments are completely useless sods and shouldn't be trusted ;) could be a real pain.
-- cp, Jun 19 2001


I think I must have used up my entire life's supply of obstreperous days when I was four years old.
-- beauxeault, Jun 19 2001


Every day is Obstreperous Day.
-- egnor, Jun 19 2001


What's a chook raffle?
-- lewisgirl, Jun 20 2001


A chook raffle is like a meat tray raffle.
-- benfrost, Jun 20 2001


what, everyone buys a ticket to win a tray of meat? (or chooks? what are chooks? Where I grew up, a tcheuchter (pronounced almost the same way) was a name for a person that lived in the country).
-- lewisgirl, Jun 20 2001


A chook is a chicken. In the raffle the chook is frozen.
-- benfrost, Jun 20 2001


lewisgirl: teuchter refers not to someone from the country in general, but to people from the Highlands (ususally Gaelic speaking parts) of Scotland. It is a derogatory term, in much the same vein as Sasanach etc.
-- salachair, Oct 08 2001


ohhh. We must have corrupted the term to be more inclusive of our friends in Muirhead and Birkhill. We corrupted a lot of things, actually.
-- lewisgirl, Oct 08 2001


Lewisgirl: If that's the Muirhead and Birkhill in Angus, we normally find that "You're from Dundee" is a more than sufficient insult. (But then that's just us sophisticated Edinburgenses, Glaswegians and Aberdonians.)
-- pottedstu, Oct 08 2001


I only lived there. I wasn't *from* there. I shall be living in Aberdeen from next weekend until Christmas... it may be my duty to start a breakaway convention up in the frozen wastes of the North...
-- lewisgirl, Oct 09 2001



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