"Dead man's float" (and not in OED)

Joel S. Berson Berson at ATT.NET
Mon Jun 2 15:46:58 UTC 2014


At 6/1/2014 07:15 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:

>I heard it in 1961.
>
>JL

I'm surprised you haven't drowned yet.  Assuming you mean you heard
the same misinformation the BSCs' instructor gave.  (You couldn't
have meant you heard the joke -- cellphones hadn't been invented in 1961.)

Joel



>On Sun, Jun 1, 2014 at 7:01 PM, Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      Re: "Dead man's float" (and not in OED)
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > I am curious about the [sic] --- how would you write the possessive of
> > Boston Sports Clubs?
> >
> > DanG
> >
> >
> > On Sun, Jun 1, 2014 at 6:08 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
> >
> > > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > > -----------------------
> > > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > > Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> > > Subject:      "Dead man's float" (and not in OED)
> > >
> > >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > >
> > > In "Tales From the City" in today's Boston Globe magazine section, a
> > > Newton resident writes that "at the Boston Sports Clubs' [sic]
> > > Watertown location" he overheard an "exchange between a swimming
> > > instructor and a boy of 5 or 6."
> > > "Instructor: 'You've just learned the dead man's float. What's great
> > > about that?'
> > > "Boy: 'I don't know.'
> > > "Instructor: 'Well, if you get into difficulties, you're on your back
> > > and can breathe easily. You can then just float to the side of the
> > > pool or call for help.'
> > > "Boy: 'What if I don't have a cellphone?'
> > >
> > > The joke may be funny, but the swimming instructor's instructions are
> > > not.  In the dead man's float I was taught, one floats vertically,
> > > face immersed with just the top of the head out of water, raising the
> > > head periodically to breathe.  See
> > > http://www.ehow.com/how_6582_survival-float.html (AKA the jellyfish
> > > or dead man's float).  That provides more buoyancy than floating on
> > > one's back, important for people whose density approaches that of water.
> > >
> > > P.S.  "Dead man's float" not in OED.
> > >
> > > Joel
> > >
> > > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> > >
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>
>
>--
>"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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