Ubereil - Sometimes when people say that a child "needs a good spanking", they just mean the child needs discipline. It's quite a common figure of speech in North America, and doesn't necessarily imply physical spanking...
<< cultural anthropology 101: clarify the situation before reacting too strongly. "If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's probably an imp in disguise." -- wisdom from Divine Divinity >>
