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OP
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OK, hands up all those who know the collective noun for jellyfish, or bees (other than a swarm), or turtles -- and no peeking in James Lipton's wonderful compilation "An exaltation of larks".
Accoerding to a report in today's Melbourne Age (copied from the Telegraph in London), an English headmaster, Steve Palin, has just published "A menagerie of animals", a successor to his "A dissimulation of birds".
And the answers (according to Palin) are: a smuck of jellyfish (Lipton has 'smack'), a grist of bees, and a bale of turtles (apparently a mediaeval miscopying of a 'dule' of turtle doves).
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Add to that' a body of pathologists' - ;^)
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Pooh-Bah
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[anti-YART shield at the ready]
"a smuck of jellyfish (Lipton has 'smack')"
I love collective nouns. And I'm guessing that a smuck of jellyfish is a sly reference to Smuckers (sp?) jelly.
Can anybody confirm or refute that speculation?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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a smuck of jellyfish (Lipton has 'smack')
Smuck would be the past tense. This would refer to jellyfish that had been washed up on the golden sands of the beaches of neglect and were all dried out for lack of a small girl who made a difference to throw them all back in the ocean.
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I love collective nouns. And I'm guessing that a smuck of jellyfish is a sly reference to Smuckers (sp?) jelly.If it's not, it should be! (Even though we're a Wolverine family, I must give credit where due.  )
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old hand
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old hand
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lack of a small girl who made a difference to throw them all back in the ocean.
um . . . aren't most jellyfish poisonous? It wouldn't really be safe for a little girl to go around picking them up. Plus, they're kinda squishy and slimy. Most girls I know would stay as far away as possibly from it.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Jellyfish sting when they're touched in water ... dried out on beach they are pretty pathetic and when you touch them they feel sort of like Jell-O (gelatin mold) that's been left out on the counter overnight. To pick them up use a towel to protect your hands from a rash.
No wimpy girls around here!
Our northern beaches get jellyfish ... much different from the Man-O-War type found further south!
wow
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Jellyfish sting when they're touched in water
Having grown up on the same beaches wow refers to, I always thought this was the case, and that Jellyfish only sting when in the water. In fact, many of the jellyfish on New England beaches are not poisonous, so we used to have some pretty amazing jellyfish fights as kids, during certain times of the summer when they were everywhere. I can attest that, in those circumstances, it was definitely a smack of jellyfish. I'd have to concur with Jazzo that the little girls were less interested in such activities than us nasty boys.
Our northern beaches get jellyfish ... much different from the Man-O-War type found further south!
It turns out that these beasties' stingers are pretty nasty for quite a while after they've washed up. I found a Man O' War about six feet across in Massachusetts when I was a kid, and my inexperience I didn't avoid the long tendrils coming off it. They looked like very long strands of red hair, but wherever they touched skin they hurt worse than just about anything - and taking them off didn't help a bit.
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veteran
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Believe it or not, jellyfish are an item in Chinese cuisine, usually as an appetizer or part of an appetizer. Although I have eat (and continue to eat) a good many strange things, I draw the line at jellyfish, insects and grubs.
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Carpal Tunnel
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I draw the line at jellyfish, insects and grubs.
Bobby : So you aren't planning to apply to vie for the $1,000,000 prize on the "Survivor" TV show?
wow
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