In the last sentence of Cecil’s column on deaths due to falling coconuts, at http://www.straightdope.com/columns/020719.html, Unca Cece says:
… to which I must counter:
What if you were dating Roseanne Barr, and she fell on you?
Haha. 
Well, I know my alarm clock is pretty heavy, and would probably leave a mark or too.
On a more serious note though, as a selachophil, I don’t know why I have to “take that”, as Cecil nicely put it. Even if the figure is unproven, that doesn’t mean its bogus–much of science involves estimation, accurate or otherwise. Regardless, with up to 73 million sharks partially harvested annually*, and only a handful of human fatalities annually, the fact still stands that they have much more to fear of us than vice versa.
You sure wouldn’t want a swallow dropping one on you. African or European.
A five ounce bird could not carry a one pound coconut
I think a falling date would hurt like a hailstone. I suggest you go to Hollywood Boulevard and try it.
My grandmother’s house, where I grew up, had three palm trees on the property. I have been hit by falling dates before. It has never been a particularly noteworthy experience.
Also, unlike coconuts (I imagine), dates are the perfect projectile for use with a plastic baseball bat when you’re a small child with nothing else to do with your summer days. Toss, swing, repeat.
Please explain.
It could grip it by the husk.
We apologise again for the fault in the subtitles. Those
responsible for sacking the people who have just been sacked
have been sacked.Psst, majorkirtar, I don’t know if it was your intent to make your post almost impossible to read, but that was the effect. You might want to just stick to black, if you hang around. Or at least something with a bit more contrast like blue, or so.
Supposing two swallows carried it together?
When I moved to Hawaii, I was shocked to discover that coconuts came in these green husks. Gilligan’s Island had taught me that they drop off the trees as you see them in the supermarket.