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Strictgram Would it be accurate to say that the cane is somewhat unique in that the punishment can be titrated or adjusted extremely precisely?
Thus, a sentence of three strokes is VERY different from a sentence of just one stroke. Almost all of the SW contributors who felt the cane at school recount the precise number of strokes they received. Often they recall where a particular stroke was placed. The necessarily overlapping diagonal strokes created extremely accurate memories.
Such precision memories suggest that it is more than just the amount of pain involved. It is most likely the combination of the intensity plus its being concentrated in a straight line with a relatively easy to characterize location.
Other implements are able to induce similar levels of discomfort and to do so with the same efficiency but the memory they leave is rarely so specific and so linked to a particular location on the bottom. In short, cane strokes stand out individually where as slipper, hairbrush, and bathbrush strokes almost instantly overlap and blur together.
In a sense the cane (or its natural equivalent the fresh green switch) is irreplaceable.
