Welcome back, dropzone!
Do Aussies keep their valuables in their prison wallet or is that just a US accessory?
good news!
yes, share experiences as you feel able and, most importantly, how are you feeling now?
Good to hear. And thanks for the update!
I think the shiv is the implement, to shank is the verb. “I shanked him with a shiv.”
Welcome back, dropzone!
StG
I am moderately happy you haven’t died… 
;)
Be well. And have a shank of beef for dinner to celebrate…
I think we’re expecting too much linguistic provision from a certain sub-set of the population. 
I’ve heard “shiv” used as a verb, just like “knife” can be a verb: “He shivved the guy”.
And I’ve heard “shank” used as a noun.
Welcome back, dropzone! Glad you’re better.
I was thinking “Gen Pop? Which generation is that? I can’t keep track. And it’s not like other generations didn’t have their own Pop music.”
In my experience, shank and shiv could be used as both nouns and verbs. There is also no significant difference in usage in referring to a handmade weapon versus a commercially manufactured one (which is a distinction I’ve seen claimed online). In terms of usage, the two words are interchangeable.
The only significant difference I saw was that shank was commonly used and shiv was not. Shiv was something you heard in an old prison movie. Calling a weapon a shiv would be the equivalent of calling the police the fuzz. If a prisoner used the word shiv, it would reveal him as somebody who was faking his knowledge of actual prison life.
That said, my direct familiarity with prison lingo is based on New York state. Perhaps there are other areas where shiv is still a commonly used term and prisoners can shiv each other to their heart’s content without worrying about losing the respect of their peers.
claps Finally some good news in this whole big wreck! Welcome back!!
Woohoo! 
My Covid-19 experience - or - I told you I was sick
In late January I had a not-breathing episode triggered by choking on my breakfast. Off to the hospital I went because Covid-19 still hadn’t made a name for itself on these shores. While there I had a “very high” fever (the highest I heard was 100.4F.). The coughing, which wasn’t all that different from my norm, required far deeper reaching than normal, and what it brought up was a teaspoon of phlegm about half as gooey and sticky as a fresh gummi bear. I did a dozen of them a day, spitting them out but making a mess because they were so sticky. My fever, what there was of it, broke and I was sent back here.
A daughter, who works at an upscale public high school, had the same, and she concluded that she had caught Covid-19 from one of her students. It made sense to me, and that’s why I decided I had it. And as our director of nursing was one of our two fatalities and I had met with her after my hospital visit I chose to include her death in the Legend of dropzone.
They finally began testing everybody. First they gave me a swab test, but that took too long to get back, so I failed the blood test. They sent me to the hospital where I got more tests. It was needless because my swab test results were delivered while I was in the ambulance. I came back here and got dumped in the Covid ward for a week or so. I got out yesterday and the cough ended today.
Having been diverted by a conversation about stabbing people in prison, I want to get back on topic by welcoming you back and saying I’m glad to hear you are feeling better.
Stabbing people is far more interesting.
That’s why all the cool doctors want to be surgeons.
Yay!
Welcome back.
I think I know a reason why so many polite old ladies are killed by this. The coughing you need to do to claw that thick mucus out of your lungs is long, hard work, and the noises you make so loud and obnoxious that I can imagine the daintier old dears being willing to die rather than cough like that.
interesting that you mention mucus. I thought one of the defining characteristics of COVID was a DRY cough.
When your mucous is so thick that you get hemorrhaging in your eyeballs from coughing to bring it up, your “lesser” cough will probably be a nagging, dry cough that isn’t bringing anything up. That’s why doctors suggest expectorants-- medications that this your mucous, and essentially turn a dry cough into a wet cough.