Today's paper has a story about gutting New Orleans homes damaged by Hurricane Katrina, stripping them down to bare stud wals and floors, to be rebuilt. It has three words whose usage structk me as a bit odd, dissect, fortuitously and fantastical, hence three treads, this being #1.
quote:
Mike Bertel guided a growling electric saw through splotcy, spirallying patterns of dull colors. Dust flew everywhere. It's mold, smothering entire walls in Cheryl Rachal's flood-damaged, two-story house. ... Mr. Bertel, caked in dust from wrangling moldy sheetrock, disected a 10-foot panel of the ruined wall and hustled it outside onto a 6-foot-high- by 40-foot-long trash heap.
I think of dissecting as involving medicine or biology. Is the above a proper usage? Is it a common one?
