Early this morning I had a Speranza moment & still don't know what to do
with it. Maybe he can help. I've been reading /The Invaders, How
Humans and their dogs drove Neanderthals to Extinction, /by Pat
Shipman. Quite a lot is known about Wolves from their reintroduction
into Yellowstone. On page 98 Shipman writes, "Wolf /06 /was an able
leader of her pack, strong and clever, and she is one of the few wolves
ever seen to single-handedly bring down an adult elk."
I got way off track thinking about this. Wolves don't have hands.
Wolves can't even be hands (as in "all hands on deck"), or can they? A
man can be single handed if one of his is cut off. If he is a sailor he
can engage in a single-handed race across the Atlantic.
Certainly one knows what Shipman means, but she is at the very least
inelegant in her phraseology. Or has "single-handedly" grown to apply
to beings without hands while I slept and grew old?
Lawrence
