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

[Jonathan Lighter]

I heard it in 1961.

JL


On Sun, Jun 1, 2014 at 7:01 PM, Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at gmail.com> wrote:

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> 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)
>
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>
> 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:
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> > 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)
> >
> >
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> >
> > 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
> >
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