Phlebonics

[Arnold Zwicky]

On Apr 21, 2010, at 3:02 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:

> At 4/21/2010 10:59 AM, Arnold Zwicky wrote:
>> On Apr 21, 2010, at 7:25 AM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>>
>>> At 4/21/2010 12:32 AM, Wilson Gray wrote:
>>>> Isn't there also an auxiliary branch of medicine known as
>>>> "phlebonics," where they draw your blood or something? This is
>>>> not to
>>>> be confused with that infamous bit of quacksalvery known as
>>>> "fleabonics." Everybody knows that can't cancer be cured with any
>>>> fleas, despite what those local-cable ads claim.
>>>
>>> Are you thinking of phlebotonics?  The science of studying the
>>> processes of blood coursing through meat-eating plants?  :-)
>>
>> on a more serious note, he might have been thinking of phlebotomy
>> (etymologically 'vein'-cutting'), the drawing of blood for clinical
>> purposes -- by a phlebotomist.
>
> Gee. arnold, if I'd known you were so serious, I would have
> explained myself.

why so snarky, Joel? i thought i made it clear that i understood that
you were joking.

but i also understood Wilson to have been asking a serious question,
which no one had tried to answer -- before he digressed into joking
about "fleabonics".  (but then Wilson's digressions, on a rough
association-of-ideas basis, are famous around here, so they shouldn't
be used to discount what they take off from.)

but now it seems that everyone understands Wilson's query about
"phlebotonics" to have been a joke as well.  so i'm a fool and i
should have just stayed out of the whole thing.

arnold

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