# rationale for funky frogs and pedantic brush *The Urth list — 2 messages, 2 voices, 21 Mar 2002* > 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. --- ### maa32 *21 Mar 2002, 05:33* Someone asked why I bothered with the trematode/frog thing. Jerry previously commented that he hadn't seen anything that indicated these polyploid froggies X. Leavis might have multiple limbs... but that article indicates that this is a common mutation they experience. Obviously it has nothing (or little) to do with their polyploidy and more to do with their regenerative powers. If I wanted to be a real jackass I could say that the liana's are like Trematodes to the trees, stimulating extra limb growth with their cysty presence (remember that the pit Horn fell into was covered with vines). However, I will do no such thing and just leave it as meaning nothing because that is pushing the realms of credibility and rationality far beyond anything I am willing to do. (Of course, that was a nice little rhetorical occupatio right there, wasn't it?) Incidentally, the first definition for "Brush" at merriam webster online is "Brushwood". I am here going to imply that we use a test to see which of the following relationships hold: leaf: brushwood: tree or leaf: scrubbing brush: tree Can't brushwood be rough and brown if it's dead? I shouldn't beat that to death. I'll leave it alone. I'm just saying that simple words often have more than one definition ... and in this case the context just seems to insinuate foliage of somekind. If you still want to argue about the word, then I will copy all of the dictionary definitions over. We are both saying the same thing about new life to decayed things, I'm just saying the new sun is granting a different kind of life rather than a resurrection. I guess there is no sense discussing it further - we are "kind of" saying the same thing. Marc --- ### Jerry Friedman *21 Mar 2002, 16:58 · follows maa32* > --- maa32 wrote: > Someone asked why I bothered with the trematode/frog thing. Jerry > previously > commented that he hadn't seen anything that indicated these polyploid > froggies > X. Leavis might have multiple limbs... but that article indicates that > this is > a common mutation they experience. Obviously it has nothing (or little) > to do > with their polyploidy and more to do with their regenerative powers. Or with their process of development when it's interfered with. The article was interesting but I doubt very much that it has anything to do with the Neighbors' or the hus's or felwolves' extra limbs. ... > We are both saying the same thing about new life to decayed things, I'm > just > saying the new sun is granting a different kind of life rather than a > resurrection. I guess there is no sense discussing it further - we are > "kind > of" saying the same thing. > Marc And the brush is at least partly made of plant material (wood). A couple plant-animal ambiguities that I haven't seen mentioned yet: the Claw that's a thorn, and the names Chenille and Marrow (the the ambiguity of both names is explicitly pointed out, but not interpreted by the Vironese characters as sexual ambiguity--I'll admit to wondering, though, whether Chenille has XY chromosomes and testicular feminization syndrome, which is consistent with her being tall and never having children). Wolfe seems to like this plant- animal theme--I'm almost tempted to call it a trope. Jerry Friedman ---