What The Hail???

[Joel S. Berson]

At 8/12/2008 02:07 PM, Matthew Gordon wrote:
>Actually, I was suggesting that, unlike grapes, dimes don't vary in size.

Except in the 18th century and earlier, when they were clipped.


>If you're comparing things by size, it might be clearer to use something
>invariant in size for comparison even if the thing you're really talking
>about (e.g. hail) varies.

Much less fun, though.

Joel



>On 9/12/08 12:37 PM, "Doug Harris" <cats22 at FRONTIERNET.NET> wrote:
>
> > So you're suggesting that, unlike snow flakes, hail stones may sometimes be
> > identically sized?
> > dh
> >
> >
> > Poster:       Matthew Gordon <gordonmj at MISSOURI.EDU>
> > Subject:      Re: What The Hail???
> >
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > ---
> >
> > Well, also, there's less variation in the size of dimes than of grapes,
> > tomatoes, etc.
> >
> >
> > On 8/12/08 9:04 AM, "Marc Velasco" <marcjvelasco at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> >
> >> I suspect, although working meteorologists might be sought for
> > confirmation,
> >> that the use of coin-size denominations of hail is an attempt at using
> >> something 'universal' and very basic in an attempt to convey safety
> >> warnings.  So perhaps dimes are more common than cherry tomatoes as
> > lexical
> >> markers.
> >>
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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