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Previous Thread Next Thread Print Thread Page 1 of 2 1 2 Lethal jellyfish #94108 02/01/03 01:02 AM Joined: Jan 2001 Posts: 13,858 W wwh OP Carpal Tunnel OP wwh Carpal Tunnel W Joined: Jan 2001 Posts: 13,858 Story on BBC tonight about jellyfish the size of two match heads that can kill bathers off eastern Australia: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/2713211.stm Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: Lethal jellyfish #94109 02/01/03 01:40 AM Joined: Sep 2001 Posts: 6,296 Piedmont Region of Virginia, U... W Wordwind Carpal Tunnel Wordwind Carpal Tunnel W Joined: Sep 2001 Posts: 6,296 Piedmont Region of Virginia, U... I haven't read the article yet, wwh. I will. But the size of two match heads? How in Sam's Hill would you see the bloody thing? Big Virginia jellyfish are pretty hard to see. But two match heads. Somebody needs to send this information to Dave Barry. Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: Lethal jellyfish agreement #94110 02/01/03 01:55 AM Joined: Sep 2001 Posts: 6,296 Piedmont Region of Virginia, U... W Wordwind Carpal Tunnel Wordwind Carpal Tunnel W Joined: Sep 2001 Posts: 6,296 Piedmont Region of Virginia, U... OK. Just read it. And there's a cool word problem that I can see going both ways. First the name of the nefarious little beast: irukandji jellyfish Irukandji means "Match Head Two Times Over." Just kidding. But here's the interesting sentence from the article to parse since this is a word board and even occasionally down here on the safari that only wwh and I read and write in with occasional visits by such dignitaries as the recent flight of the wingful Asp. Oh, I got sidetracked thinking about what a desolate place this safari is. Here's the sentence (wwh, I know you're with me): "Peter Fenner, a jellyfish expert, said: "Of course, two patients doesn't make a whole solution but it's an extremely helpful tool for hospital treatment." Two patients doesn't make? Now I understand that what jellyfish expert Fenner means: solution (singular) = whatever quantity is equivalent to the singular solution. But, sheesh, what's wrong with: "Two patients don't make a whole solution"? I know, I know already! You're thinking, "Well, Jellyfish Fenner said it that way so we wouldn't think the two patients were actively engaged in making the solution themselves, Wordwind, you thick-headed lout!" But I think that the "two patients doesn't make" is such an awkward construction that we (people like me) lose the whole story while trying to figure out why the plural subject is taking a singular verb, and, once we've figured it out, we've forgotten what the story was about in the first place. Any thoughts on this, wwh? Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: Lethal jellyfish #94111 02/01/03 01:59 AM Joined: Jan 2001 Posts: 13,858 W wwh OP Carpal Tunnel OP wwh Carpal Tunnel W Joined: Jan 2001 Posts: 13,858 Dear WW: you might not see it, but it apparently is extremely painful. Fifty years ago there were reports that painful stings from Atlantic jellyfish could be soothed by application of meat tenderizer, which contains an enzyme said to be capable of detoxifying the venom. I never got a chance to test it. My wife saw a scientist at Bar Harbor, where she had summer job in the Laboratories there, scoop a dead jellyfish out of a pail, not stopping to think that the sting cells were still functional. She said he had great pain in his hand for several hours. Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: Lethal jellyfish #94112 02/01/03 02:05 AM Joined: Sep 2001 Posts: 6,296 Piedmont Region of Virginia, U... W Wordwind Carpal Tunnel Wordwind Carpal Tunnel W Joined: Sep 2001 Posts: 6,296 Piedmont Region of Virginia, U... Oh, you can see 'em--but you have to keep your eyes peeled for them. I've never been stung by one. They certainly do look like jelly. Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: Lethal jellyfish #94113 02/01/03 02:14 AM Joined: Jan 2001 Posts: 13,858 W wwh OP Carpal Tunnel OP wwh Carpal Tunnel W Joined: Jan 2001 Posts: 13,858 But what's hard to see about the Portuguese Man o' War is the very long almost invisible tentacles that hang deep into the water. Remember the Sherlock Holmes story The Lion's Mane? Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: Lethal jellyfish #94114 02/03/03 09:52 PM Joined: Jun 2001 Posts: 2,636 Caribbean consuelo Carpal Tunnel consuelo Carpal Tunnel Joined: Jun 2001 Posts: 2,636 Caribbean I was stung by a jellyfish once in Mazatlan. There is a whole nother story attached to this, but to keep it short, it hurt like hell for several hours. The Red Cross clinic my (now ex-)husband took me to gave me an OTC pain killer and rubbed the sting with lemon juice. I had already been in physical and emotional agony for an hour and the next several hours were spent in mental anguish, so I really can't tell you if it helped or not. The irony of the whole thing is that I was stung while standing in two inches of water, trying to coax my one year old daughter into the ocean, telling her there was nothing to be afraid of. Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: Lethal jellyfish #94115 02/03/03 10:31 PM Joined: Jan 2001 Posts: 13,858 W wwh OP Carpal Tunnel OP wwh Carpal Tunnel W Joined: Jan 2001 Posts: 13,858 I just did a search for treatment of jellyfish stings. There are so many conflicting statements that it is clear none of the treatments are much good. There are so many incidents that you'd think that there shouldn't be so much confusiona dn contradiction, after so many years. Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: Lethal jellyfish agreement #94116 02/04/03 06:33 AM Joined: Jan 2001 Posts: 618 Australia D doc_comfort addict doc_comfort addict D Joined: Jan 2001 Posts: 618 Australia "Of course, two patients doesn't make a whole solution..." ...why the plural subject is taking a singular verb... The subject, it ain't plural. The "two patients" are a single entity. "The two patients..." would be plural. Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: Lethal jellyfish agreement #94117 02/04/03 10:28 AM Joined: Sep 2001 Posts: 6,296 Piedmont Region of Virginia, U... W Wordwind Carpal Tunnel Wordwind Carpal Tunnel W Joined: Sep 2001 Posts: 6,296 Piedmont Region of Virginia, U... Thanks for your response, Doc. And I understand the form used here with 'two patients doesn't'-- But would 'two patients don't make a whole solution' be categorically incorrect? In other words, could this be an either/or case for grammatical correctness? Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Page 1 of 2 1 2 Moderated by  Jackie  Hop To General Topics ------  Information and announcements  Q&A about words  Wordplay and fun  Words and languages in schools  Miscellany  Weekly Themes  Looking for (writers, speakers,... (Old) Weekly themes. 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