Dec 22, 2025
The Dictionary of Imaginary Places
RIGMAROLE, a town in the south of the land of Oz.
Like Flutterbudget Center to the north-west, Rigmarole is one of the defensive settlements of Oz. Citizens who prove unable to talk clearly and to the point are sent to Rigmarole, where they live with others of their kind. They all address each other in long, complex speeches in which a great number of words are used but very little is said. They are quite incapable of answering a simple question without rattling off a long discourse.
(L. Frank Baum, The Emerald City of Oz, Chicago, 1910)
Text from The Dictionary of Imaginary Places, updated and expanded edition by Alberto Manguel and Gianni Guadalupi (Harcourt Brace & Company, 2000)
