I don't necessarily want to change the subject, only to
comment--prompted by Johanna's reference to the "inevitable changes in
the language"--about an apparent change in the language that I would be
interested in hearing comment on.
 
In the past few days, once in a poem and again in a novel, both works by
reasonably highly regarded writers--I have come across the word "hung"
to refer to people who had committed suicide by stringing themselves up:
e.g., "One poor client hung himself from a basement rafter--...."  I
recall being taught that beef (and other animal) carcasses were "hung"
for aging purposes, but that human beings were "hanged."  Is this now a
laughably quaint distinction?
 
Norm Carlson
Western Michigan University