Subject: (urth) Re: "strike" on the lead weight [Digest urth.v028.n042]

From: John Bishop <jbishop at blkbrd.zko.dec.com>
Date: Wed, 29 Sep 1999 14:12:32 +0000

Apparently this was actual practice in Classic 
times: herewith a quote from a reference

http://omega.cohums.ohio-state.edu/hyper-lists/bmcr-l/1991/02.06.16.html

      :
   The section on slogans inscribed on lead 
   bullets (e. g., "take that," "[this one's]
   for you," "ouch," "get pregnant with this")
   is particularly intriguing (45-46). 
      :

I looked around the web, but couldn't refind the sling
page with photos of such sling-bullets.

See also http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/rialto/slings-msg.text

Further proof that Mr Wolfe has a strong background in
Classic studies!

	-John Bishop

*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.urth.net/urth/

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From: Michael Straight <straight at email.unc.edu>
Date: Wed, 29 Sep 1999 17:21:14 +0000

On Wed, 29 Sep 1999, Greene, Carlton wrote:

> It also raises some rather odd toxicology questions -- could a normal human
> being really walk around for as long as she did with a belly full of lead
> shot without suffering brain damage or, at the very least, a really bad
> tummy ache?

One wrinkle is that we don't know how much human physiology has changed
between Severian's time and ours (or between ours and Severians, depending
on how you want to think about the chronology).

-Rostrum

---

From: Peter Stephenson <pws at ibmth.df.unipi.it>
Date: Thu, 30 Sep 1999 08:32:38 +0000

"Greene, Carlton" wrote:
> Not to shake that tired old stick at the question, but maybe the Claw had
> something to do with it.

Perfectly reasonable --- she was, after all, already dead when she was
weighted down with lead shot.  (Well --- I hope so.)  If the Claw brought
her back to life, presumably a bit of lead poisoning isn't going to be much
of a problem.  To put it another way, I don't suppose the other corpses lie
around thinking `Ugh, this lead shot's not doing me any good'.  Before this
becomes serious fan fiction...

corncrake