h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Sigh. I will likely be flamed for a pedant, but here goes, anyhow.

"...soup has singlehandedly decimated whole legions of sharks"

1. Soup does not posses hands
2. Decimation is the loss of one in ten. ( When a Roman legion ( = regiment ) exhibited cowardice in battle, one in every ten members was executed, a process termed decimation )
3. Sharks are not organised into legions.

I am guessing that you meant to say that entire populations of sharks have been reduced to a tenth of their former size.

Agreed - I'm on the case now.

Thanks for this

Wow! That was fast, and gracious.

I try to be as gracious as possible... a Gentleman and a Scholar

We need more gentlemanly scholars.

"This is a common Chinese delicacy which is responsible for reducing the shark population to a tenth of its original size. "

Yes, the above is the official sanctified version. I can't find my original phrase of "...soup has singlehandedly decimated whole legions of sharks" now on the net.

But I stand up for my original phrasing. You see my poet's license waving in my hand? The imagery of soup mercilessly slaughtering whole cadres of sharks, bloodying the oceans to be finally double-boiled into neat little chinese bowls does more OOMMPHH!, wouldn't you say?

> 2. Decimation is the loss of one in ten.

Whilst I agree that decimate has been grossly misused and is poorly understood, I was led to understand that the application was somewhat different.

When occupied villages were unruly or failed to respect the orders of the occupying legions, the population was lined up and one in ten was killed in order to bring the rest of the villagers into line.

One imagines that either would be effective means of disciplining the victims (those 9 out of ten that survived, anyway.)

- PT
PierceThorne.com