....Well crap

[Hurlshort]

Well you would think that way. Hm, he should try scaring them with it somehow. Have to make your own fun, after all.

 

I endorse that completely.  

[Gromnir]

 A celery stick just looks more graceful and expressive than a stocky pickle.

 

 

is funny you bring up food. we can make pickles look like little green flowers if we so desire, but we can't make 'em taste like celery.  we can do all kind o' stuff with pickle appearance, but at the end o' the day, a pickle is not celery and we can't substitute pickle for celery, not even dill pickle.  

 

the technical requirements for dancers has, even to Gromnir's untrained eyes, changed over the years.   

 

http://scienceblogs.com/notrocketscience/2009/03/31/ballet-postures-have-become-more-extreme-over-time/

 

is possibly a chicken and egg argument. is possible that there has been a persistent aesthetic trend since the late 1800s towards celery, but there has also been a steady increase in technical demands.  so do we have increased technical demand 'cause choreographers found themselves with more capable dancers, or is it that the demand for "more dexterous and showy dancers" led to choosing dancers with appropriate physiques? regardless, is unfortunate, but sad little pickles can't do the job o' celery. not in cooking or dancing... though is more physics than chemistry when speaking o' dancing.  yeah, aesthetics is more important in ballet than in most sports, but we suspect that as with rock climbing, cycling, swimming and so many other physical demanding pursuits, form follows function.

 

as for swimming without a limb to become faster... that might be an interesting physics query.  the kick portion o' backstroke and freestyle is providing relative small amount o' propulsion to a swimmer, so loss of part o' a leg may have some advantages in the pool. your start is obviously gonna suffer, so we s'pose a distance event would be a better test.  

 

we actual do recall reading a rather curious paper about the advantages swimmers with abducted thumbs might have over their competitors... which is exactly the kinda thing that gives science nerds a bad reputation.

 

HA! Good Fun!