[Ads-l] Heard on Forensic files:

[Jonathan Lighter]

I was pretty much a grownup before I discovered that the "lying flat"
interpretation was incorrect.

In fact, I may have read the sad truth in one of those books on correct
usage - which would mean Larry and I weren't alone in our blindness.

JL

On Wed, Feb 7, 2018 at 10:22 AM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
wrote:

> > On Feb 7, 2018, at 12:10 AM, Dave Hause <dwhause at CABLEMO.NET> wrote:
> >
> > Well, maybe they wouldn't know "supine" but they'd know it ISN"T prone.
>
> I’m not sure.  I learned marksmanship in summer camp at 8 or 9, and I did
> indeed learn prone at that point, but I’m not sure I would have deduced
> that lying on my back, with or without a rifle in my hands, wouldn’t have
> *also* been called prone.  For all I knew, “prone” meant lying down.   I’m
> sure it was several years after learning “prone” that I learned that supine
> wasn’t.
>
> LH
>
>
>
> > -----Original Message----- From: Dave Hause Sent: Tuesday, February 6,
> 2018 11:08 PM To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU Subject: Re: Heard on Forensic
> files:
> > Anyone who ever had instruction in rifle marksmanship.
> > Dave Hause
> >
> > -----Original Message----- From: Jonathan Lighter
> > Sent: Tuesday, February 6, 2018 7:47 PM
> > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> > Subject: Re: Heard on Forensic files:
> >
> > Of course. But who else knows that?
> >
> > JL
> >
> > On Tue, Feb 6, 2018 at 7:43 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >> "She was lying on her back, when she was stabbed, _in the prone
> position_."
> >>
> >> He meant to say, "in the _supine_ position," of course.
> >> --
> >> -Wilson
> >> -----
> >> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
> >> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> >> -Mark Twain
> >>
> >> ------------------------------------------------------------
> >> 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."
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > 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."

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org