Wetsuits (and soggy jackets and trousers)

[nq:1]"Wet suit-wearing bank robber takes a dive" *Seattle Post-Intelligencer* headline (17 April 2004) http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/169553 diver17ww.html[/nq]
Soaked but classy, huh?

Skitt (in Hayward, California)
www.geocities.com/opus731/

[nq:1]"Wet suit-wearing bank robber takes a dive"[/nq]
If you dry off a wetsuit, what's it called?
If you carve a dirty word on a bar of soap, what do you have?

[nq:1]"Wet suit-wearing bank robber takes a dive" *Seattle Post-Intelligencer* headline (17 April 2004) http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/169553 diver17ww.html[/nq]
I think I see how this happened. Bizarrely, neither AHD3 nor the MW online list "wetsuit" as a single word, alth

[nq:2]"Wet suit-wearing bank robber takes a dive" *Seattle Post-Intelligencer* headline (17 April 2004) http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/169553 diver17ww.html[/nq]
[nq:1]I think I see how this happened. Bizarrely, neither AHD3 nor the MW online list "wetsuit" as a single word

[nq:2]I think I see how this happened. Bizarrely, neither AHD3 ... position of the hyphen needed changing as well ("wet-suit wearing").[/nq]
[nq:1]Close... but no snorkel. The hyphen between "suit" and "wearing" is still required "wet-suit-wearing bank robber", "shell-suit-clad senior citizen", etc. IIRC, Bill Walsh makes this point forcefully (as usual) and effectively (as usual) somewhere on

[nq:1]Well, until I see a convincing argument, fiddlesticks. The second hyphen is not required to disambiguate anything. "Wetsuit wearing" needs no hypen, nor does "wet-suit wearing" need a second hyphen.[/nq]
You would probably have paid money to see P T Barnum's "Man eating chicken" exhibit in his museum of weird and unusual items.

Stefano

[nq:2]Well, until I see a convincing argument, fiddlesticks. The second ... no hypen, nor does "wet-suit wearing" need a second hyphen.[/nq]
[nq:1]You would probably have paid money to see P T Barnum's "Man eating chicken" exhibit in his museum of weird and unusual items.[/nq]
That would be "man-eating chicken", but not
"giant-man-eating chicken".

"A belated corporate-malfeasa

[nq:1]"A belated corporate-malfeasance item: Enron got in trouble for activities that were off its balance sheet, or off-balance-sheet activities. The hyphen-phobic write of off-balance sheet activities, which sounds more like a description of what happens when you go to bed drunk." http://www.theslot.com/carets.html[/

Michael West wibbled
[nq:1]"A belated corporate-malfeasance item: Enron got in trouble for activities that were off its balance sheet, or off-balance-sheet activities. The ... bed drunk." http://www.theslot.com/carets.html Unless he can hear a hyphen, he means "reads" not "sounds", but, yes, he's right: it does.[/n

Laura F Spira wibbled
[nq:2]"A belated corporate-malfeasance item: Enron got in trouble for activities ... of what happens when you go to bed drunk." http://www.theslot.com/carets.html[/nq]
[nq:1]I don't understand why "corporate malfeasance" should be hyphenated. "Corporate governance" isn't.[/nq]
It's an