Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[missdaredevil]

What's worse than having termites in your piano?
Crabs on your organ.
Does the word "organ" itself sometimes mean "s-e-x organ"?

thanks

[bud]

Yes, and crabs, in this case, are a sexually transmitted disease.

[Blossom]

My dictionary says that crabs is a medical condition in which you have very small insects in your p u b i c hair. Nothing to do with an 'organ' = p e n i s .

Surely crabs is not a disease?

[bud]

Well, yeah, I doubt that it is really a disease. How 'bout affliction - sexually transmitted affliction?

[Blossom]

My dictionary says that an afflicion is an illness or a serious problem.

Getting crabs is not an illness nor is it a serious problem, and it is not sexually tranmitted. Crabs can be transmitted by contact with unwashed sheets slept in by some dirty person who has caught them. My boyfriend caught crabs from one night in a cheap hotel. The doctor gave him special cream and the crabs dissapeared inside one week. There was no pain. Just ichiness.

[Blossom]

Somebody has just told me that catching crabs is a term in rowing where the oars slip out of the water.

Is this true? Has anyone heard of that?

[advoca]

Yes it a term used in rowing.

When an oar blade enters the water at an angle, instead of perpendicularly, it can get caught under the surface or �stuck� in the water. The oar handle drives into the rower�s stomach and has the potential to throw a rower out of the boat entirely! Even if not that disastrous, "catching a crab" will certainly drastically interrupt the flow of the boat through the water.

It is seldom that rowers practice catching crabs so most people are taken by surprise by their first one. It can come as a nasty shock. In a race it can effectively take a crew out of the competition. Although a good sculler can catch a crab without losing his balance, most people will be thrown over the side into the water.

[asterix]

Blossom, is your boyfriend a lawyer or a politician?

[bud]

Blossom, neither is HIV/AIDS always transmitted through sexual contact. Is it also your conclusion, then, that that is not sexually transmitted? Also, I never imagined there was any motel, no matter how cheap, that did not change the bed linens for the next customer. Even so, if you believe him, then I believe him... And I do feel bad for the guy; it must have been quite an irritation for him.

We still have a problem, though, with sexually transmitted x. What do we choose for x? I propose one of the following:

predicament
situation
dilemma - especially if there is a significant other
pickle - especially if there is a significant other
irritation
embarrassment
infection
happenstance
condition
occurrence
state
discomfiture
quandary
circumstance
problem
annoyance
awkwardness
contagion
incidence
episode

[asterix]

Crabs would definitely be irritating, I should think.

[pugachevV]

Here is the lowdown on CRABS by the American Social Health Association.

Sexual Transmission:
You can get crabs whenever some part of your body that has coarse hair (such as the pubic area, eyelashes, eyebrows, facial hair, chest, or armpits) comes into contact with the infested pubic or other coarse hair. Crabs do not usually attach to head hair.

Most cases of crabs are transmitted through sexual contact, when the crabs move from the pubic hair of one person to the pubic hair of another. Even when there is no sexual penetration, you can get crabs or transmit crabs to someone else.

Nonsexual Transmission:
Nonsexual transmission of crabs is also possible. A person can get crabs from:

* sleeping in an infested bed or using infested towels.
* wearing infested clothing.
* an infested toilet seat, though this is rare.

[Blossom]

[pugachevV]

Engineers are well-paid professionals.
I have never known an English engineer who stayed in an hotel with less than 3 stars.

[Blossom]

Silly boy. Pugachev

How long have you lived in England? What do you know about what English engineers are paid? What do you know about where they stay when they travel on business. You obviously do not know the difference between digs and hotels.

[pugachevV]

Silly girl Blossom. I am English and I was born there.
It is unlikely that your boyfriend, if he is an engineer, would stay in a place so filthy that he would get crabs from the bed.