Beached whale

[CBS240]

And I thought it was only Americans who are fat ...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/liv...n_page_id=1770
20 stone!

I pity the chair.

[CBS240]

To another topic, ice cream anyone??

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crim...rug_rap-2.html

[kelticwizard]

On the story about the woman trapped in the chair on the beach:

20 stone = 560 lbs. That's heavy.

On the other hand, I agree with the posters on ths site. Hundreds of people looked on and waited how many precious minutes for the Coast Guard to come and pull her out of the chair as the tide came in?

Come on, there weren't three or four strong men who would simply come up and give it a try?

What does the Coast Guard know about pulling fat people out of chairs that anyone else doesn't know? Did all these onlookers think the Coast Guard has special fat-people-pulling equipment specially designed for this specific task, so they better not attempt it themselves?

[SY]

kw, think "Jaws of Life."

Re: the ice cream story, that's free enterprise at its best.

[Netlist]

Now your sig is not Anonymous anymore.

/Hugo

[kelticwizard]

Hugo:

You think I should change the authorship of my sig from Anonymous to British Coast Guard?

[pinkmouse]

Originally posted by kelticwizard
You think I should change the authorship of my sig from Anonymous to British Coast Guard?

No, we just have the Coast Guard. The rest of you have add on your own country names to differentiate.

[kelticwizard]

Originally posted by SY
kw, think "Jaws of Life."

Ah yes, I had forgotten about that wonderful development.

Nevertheless, the "Jaws of Life" were nowhere to be found in that picture of the two Coast Guardsmen with that woman on the beach. Nor were the Jaws, or any other tools or equipment, mentioned in the accompanying story.

It certainly appears that the woman was unable to get out of the chair, a crowd gathered, somebody, (possibly a lifeguard), called the Coast Guard, and two Coast Guardsmen showed up and simply did what any other two able bodied men could have done, which was to pull her out of the chair.

Which speaks well for the British Coast Guard, but not at all well for that crowd of 200+ people. While waiting the half hour or so for the Coast Guard to arrive, why couldn't any two or three able bodied men come forward and give the woman a hand?

It's pretty obvious what happened. The heavy woman's girth made it necessary to carefully sqeeze past the arms of the beach chair as she sat down into it. However, it is one thing to conquer the forces of friction when you sit into a chair with gravity working for you. It is another thing to conquer the forces of friction when attempting to rise from the chair with gravity working against you. At 560 lbs, getting out of even armless chairs is no doubt an iffy proposition for this woman anyway.

Clearly, all she needed to rise from the chair was somebody to provide a little extra oomph, or perhaps somebody to hold the chair steady while a second person provided the extra oomph, and she was all set.

Instead, the crowd just gaped at her for a half hour or more while the Guard arrived. Nobody stepped forward to help. Kudos for the Coast Guard, but a big razzberry for all the able bodied men in the crowd who didn't come forward.

[kelticwizard]

Oops. Looks like my analysis was faulty.

Upon enlarging and lightening the picture from the Daily Mail, it appear that the beach chair had no arms. So much for the "friction theory".

Apparently the tide coming in and softening the sand, as well as the woman's great weight, caused the chair to sink into the sand which trapped her legs underneath.

It's a little clearer why the people in the crowd felt this was a job for a rescue team. Talk about heavy lifting-they must have some pretty strong men in that British Coast Guard!

[dangus]

Maybe people were worried that they'd be legally liable if anything went wrong, and therefore left it to experts. But more likely they were just sheep, and when everyone else just stands around and watches, it can be hard not to go with the herd.