# "strike" on the lead weight [Digest urth.v028.n042] *The Urth list — 3 messages, 3 voices, 29 Sep 1999* > Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright > in each message remains with the person who wrote it. > Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original > archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than > retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact. --- ### John Bishop *29 Sep 1999, 14:12* 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 --- ### Michael Straight *29 Sep 1999, 17:21 · follows John Bishop* > 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 --- ### Peter Stephenson *30 Sep 1999, 08:32 · follows Michael Straight* > "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 ---