[thechat] sharks (was: rationality)

Luther, Ron Ron.Luther at hp.com
Mon Jan 6 12:57:00 CST 2003


Hi David,


I'm confused how that is a corruption of the English language.

Granted, *most* encounters between people and deer are relatively peaceful -
{excepting hunting season for a moment}.  Usually the deer will run away, or
slowly walk away, or watch you closely until you go away.

There are, however, instances (usually during rut) when coming across an
ornery male deer or moose can mean being chased down and repeatedly gored
until you are dead.

(There was an incident near my home here where a single deer was determined
to have been responsible for three such deaths in a course of as many weeks ...
one of those being a law enforcement official investigating the disappearance
of one of the earlier victims. [Although if 'attack' is wrong, I guess
'victim' would be wrong too.])

If those are the 'kamakazi bambi attacks' that deke was talking about,
then "attack" is proper usage, isn't it?

[D'Oh!  Maybe you interpreted 'kamakazi' as deer jumping in front of
automobiles?  If that was the case - then I agree with you - 'attack'
would be a wrong word. Ah - and that would make your stray bullet metaphor
more meaningful as well. I wasn't sure what you meant by that initially.]

Curious,

RonL.

-----Original Message-----
From: David Wagner [mailto:dave at worlddomination.net]


deke wrote:
> Kamikazi bambi attacks will kill over 120 people this year, in the US
> alone.

I'm not entirely sure how I feel about using the word "attack" in this way.
It's a pretty serious corruption of the English language.

Kinda like someone "attacking" a stray bullet that comes across their path.



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