“These Parts” [June 18]–great feature, very interesting, and eagerly read, but:
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First–although spell-check may not agree, “hung” does not describe somebody suspended by the neck until death occurs [“Down Town”]. You may have hung up your coat or hung a picture on the wall, you may have a hung jury, you may be considered hung (but then you shouldn’t be on a scaffold, you should be in porn movies), but if you dangle somebody from a noose until they die, then they’ve been hanged. He will hang, he was hanged. I challenged a know-it-all high school English teacher on this one and won.
And more than five miles away from a dependable water source in the Illinois River? My above-mentioned property is 30 miles straight west and on the Spoon River. That town celebrated its 100th in 1983. Did it take our brave settlers 100 years to get 30 miles down the “road” and settle another town in a more logical spot right on the river?
According to the tenth edition of Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, “Hanged is most appropriate for official executions…. Hung is more appropriate for less formal hangings.” The hanging in question was anything but official.
