12 responses

• abigail Jun 19, 2008
   

  Somebody should tell me how they tell a woman's foot from a man's.

   
• todd Jun 19, 2008
   

  angle of the bones, i'm pretty sure. since the pelvis is completely different, i think that carries over to the knees/ankles. there are probably size and shape differences, too.

   
• todd Jun 19, 2008
   

  now, to be clear, this is knowledge gleaned from 'bones' rather than real science education.

   
• todd Jun 19, 2008
   

  a doctor i'm talking to right now says: "bone xrays. mens bones and womens bones look really different. the epiphyseal plates close much earlier in women than men." so somethign like that.

   
• todd Jun 19, 2008
   

  or, they could just do dna on the blood.

   
• jessica Jun 19, 2008
   

  Man, I was gonna post this story. Todd, you beat me to it.

   
• jessica Jun 19, 2008
   

  This situation brought to mind one in the southeastern United States where a child's foot was found on a beach. Eventually, they traced it to a hospital where it had been amputated. A doctor had taken it home to use it as crab bait. It somehow managed to escape the trap and wash ashore. I don't think the doctor is practicing medicine anymore.

   
• todd Jun 19, 2008
   

  "a doctor took it home to use as crab bait." sigh. that's a sentence that could probably only be uttered truthfully in a novel. or in the south.

   
• jessica Jun 20, 2008
   

  This foot seems to be a hoax.

   
• jessica Jun 20, 2008
   

  All the punsters around and no one has yet said: "The case is afoot."

   
• Arkansan Jun 20, 2008
   

  Todd: I lived in the Mississippi Gulf Coast for 5 years, and I never heard of anyone using human remains as crab bait. "In the South" -- about as funny as the VP saying his cousins married and they weren't even from West Virginia!

   
• todd Jun 20, 2008
   

  arkansan: that may be where we diverge. i thought that one was funny, too . but i have family from the southern midwest and south ('bama, arkansas, the state of misery, KY) so i guess i would find it funny. they're probably all cousins.