tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-296404802024-03-28T20:29:56.906-07:00Old Enough to Know BetterIf you do the best you can,
nothing else matters worth a damn.Steve Perryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12079658447270792228noreply@blogger.comBlogger3312125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29640480.post-30513603485752362782024-02-06T13:48:00.000-08:002024-02-07T11:02:12.983-08:00Three-Eighty or Thiry-Eight?<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkNKCEwcE4nWGpWULEgv9sShNrC3EwQ6Y6frOkl_QxFc9UCloz-honxlZWng2xcO_WaOXz1ZerxfV1HvTGs_1tK4K73WB7nUOMwgGR3OwtSRjW3Xe5TpAUJjRjgVC-tDKmEdGgbDgaWK8tt1hQbU2SvjQ8wsZ8dg-5f-MbhsaPRBpBFYTAuW1n/s2937/S&W%20and%20SIG.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1434" data-original-width="2937" height="156" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkNKCEwcE4nWGpWULEgv9sShNrC3EwQ6Y6frOkl_QxFc9UCloz-honxlZWng2xcO_WaOXz1ZerxfV1HvTGs_1tK4K73WB7nUOMwgGR3OwtSRjW3Xe5TpAUJjRjgVC-tDKmEdGgbDgaWK8tt1hQbU2SvjQ8wsZ8dg-5f-MbhsaPRBpBFYTAuW1n/s320/S&W%20and%20SIG.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">L., S&W Model 60 Chief; R., SIG P238</span></div><p></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"> .38 Special versus .380 ACP.</span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Out of a full-sized sidearm, the .38 Special is the more effective round. The bullets are generally heavier than those of a .380 ACP, they are a little slower, but hit harder. </span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 29px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">It depends on the ammunition, of course. A hot .380 ACP round will keep up with a so-so .38 Special loading, but out of a service firearm, the .38 Special is, all things being equal, a more effective bullet. Recoil is not heavy in either round.</span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 29px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Overall, the average foot-pounds delivered are higher for the .38 Special than the .380 ACP, about forty to fifty f/p more per bullet.</span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 29px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">When the guns used are short-barreled hideaways? The differences in punch and accuracy are not as great. The velocities drop in both calibers with snub-nose revolvers and pistols, they tend to be subsonic, and expansion of hollow-point ammo is iffy in both. They penetrate to about the same distances in ballistic gel. Neither is a rhino-stopper.</span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 29px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">However, there are other factors to consider. Generally, pocket .380 ACP pistols have longer barrels than J-frame revolvers. Better sights on many of them, which offer a bit better accuracy. </span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 29px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">J-frames typically hold five rounds, and .380 ACP pocket pistols hold seven or eight cartridges. So a .38 Special might throw a total of 1250 f/p downrange with a cylinder’s worth; a .380 with one in the pipe and seven in the magazine will total 1520 f/p.</span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 29px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">There is something to be said for eight instead of five.</span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 29px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Revolvers are mechanically easier to operate and less likely to malfunction than semi-automatic pistols, though with the proper load, that might not be a factor.</span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 29px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Concealability? The pistols have the edge. They tend to be shorter overall, and the cylinder of a revolver is thicker than any of the smaller pistols. Reloads are faster, though, again, most gunfights are over before either runs out of ammo.</span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 29px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">I have carried both kinds. I am comfortable with either, though the revolver is harder to hide. My choice will usually depend on clothing I’d be wearing. A jacket, any belt-holster handgun is fine. T-shirt and shorts? The small pistol (or mousegun revolver -- the .22 Magnum Pug, say) -- is all that can be easily hidden.</span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 29px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">I do like having those extra three shots as an option.</span></p>Steve Perryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12079658447270792228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29640480.post-19292584988564180192024-01-28T10:17:00.000-08:002024-01-28T10:17:38.593-08:00The Lani People<p><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiLGa3-OlVhPyAjm0xCtAXgSFfROT4OtVVd_VqCU1BAEkiGmBbR09qCIVSJBF9ytdsVAFu8HAr1t-qErMX3OhAEe-kXrn4XYpfSli0CTdvna0T7tGwJ8bduGPGAGjVlNPWv_wfZeS0yei23ReW1NjBC4CcoiGzBfkxyGOM3dYzQjJQ1Ur5Z4mC/s1087/The%20Lani%20Peope.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1087" data-original-width="677" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiLGa3-OlVhPyAjm0xCtAXgSFfROT4OtVVd_VqCU1BAEkiGmBbR09qCIVSJBF9ytdsVAFu8HAr1t-qErMX3OhAEe-kXrn4XYpfSli0CTdvna0T7tGwJ8bduGPGAGjVlNPWv_wfZeS0yei23ReW1NjBC4CcoiGzBfkxyGOM3dYzQjJQ1Ur5Z4mC/s320/The%20Lani%20Peope.png" width="199" /></a></div><br />The summer I was fourteen, I made the transition from borrowing library books to buying paperbacks. We had in our neighborhood a bookmobile that would come round on Saturday mornings, and I was a regular, but there were things you couldn't get there, and this book, pictured above, was one of them.<p></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In 1962, it was possible to go through the paperback rack at the local Rexall Drugstore, on the corner of Evangeline and McClelland streets in Baton Rouge, and find no more than one or two science fiction titles. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The cover of this particular one guaranteed that I, as a fourteen-year-old boy so full of testosterone that I sloshed when I walked, would buy it.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Attend: The cover illo featured a bunch of naked women, albeit artfully arranged with arms and angles so that you didn't actually see anything that would have been considered obscene back in the day. I couldn't pass it up. Plunked down my forty cents -- this was in the time when I got a buck and a quarter for mowing a lawn -- and was away to spend the afternoon reading.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The writer, J.F. "Jesse" Bone, was a professor at the veterinary school in Corvallis, Oregon, and the book is an action/adventure story about a vet who goes to a planet to take care of the livestock -- which in this case happens to be a humanoid species called the Lani, who are not human -- they have tails, and can't interbreed with humans. Thus it was okay to sell them.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Since you probably can't find copies of it, I'll give the plot away: The Lani <i>are</i> human and in the end, our hero manages to free them. Along the way, the writer makes some excellent points about slavery, and what constitutes humanity. Not the deepest book ever written, but it was fun, and it holds up pretty well. There is a fight scene between the vet and a male Lani that stirred my interest in martial arts greatly. The Lani is bigger, stronger, meaner, but he doesn't have a chance against the vet, who is martially-trained ...</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Fast-forward sixteen years:</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I went to my second World Science Fiction Convention, aka the WorldCon, in Phoenix, Arizona.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I said this before, but anything worth saying is worth saying at least three times: The Guest of Honor was Harlan Ellison. Since Arizona had refused to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment, Harlan attended, but refused to spend any money in such a state. He stayed in a borrowed RV, and ate and drank what he brought with him, and kudos to him for it. Harlan sometimes got flak, but he didn't just talk the talk, he also walked the walk. I liked Harlan, but even people who hated him sometimes grudgingly admitted to admiring him. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">As part of the gig, Harlan sat in a little A-frame made of two-by-fours and visquine in the middle of the lobby and wrote a short story. This was a reprise of his writer-in-a-bookstore-window routine, meant to demonstrate that a writer could craft a professional-quality tale in front of God and everybody and could concentrate well enough to pull it off, no sweat.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Impressed, I went to watch him work for while. Sitting at a table nearby was an old guy. I introduced myself, and so did he, and it was Jesse Bone.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Holy shit! The man had been a seminal influence on me. Actually, more of <i>semenal</i> influence, given that cover ...</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I made a joke about that as we chatted. Later in the day, I went to the dealer's room and had a button made: "Jesse Bone is a Semenal Influence" and I wore it the rest of the week.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">While Jesse and I were talking, a short, portly, shave-headed guy came over, carrying a huge battery-powered tape recorder. He sat, clicked on the recorder, and said, as nearly as I can recall:</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">"Hey, I'm Gene Gold. I know Jesse is too busy, but you're a writer, right?"</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I allowed as how I was. Amazing that he could tell just by looking. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">"Well, I'd doing a new magazine, and I need a story. I want it to be about the last martial arts instructor on Earth. I don't want it to be downbeat, no pathos, it needs to be two thousand words, and I need it by next Monday. Can you do it?"</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I cannot tell you how flabbergasted I was at this. To this day, the idea still boggles my mind. Of all the five thousand people at the con, <i>nobody</i> was better qualified to write that story than I, and how on Earth had this guy happened to find me?</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">"Sure," I said. "No problem."</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">"Great. Here's my card, send it to me when you are done."</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">And with that, he clicked off the recorder, stood, and left.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Son-of-a-<i>bitch</i>!</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I wrote the first four graphs of the story later, in the bar, while having a beer with -- I think, Hank Stine and Jesse Bone -- though that part is a bit hazy. Got home, did that story, plus the one Stine commissioned, and thought I was a rising star in the SF field ...</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Later, I moved to Oregon, and Jesse and I would now and then run into each other, have a beer, and a fine ole time. He passed away a few years afterward, having published a bunch of short stories and a few novels, one of which was <i>Confederation Matador -- </i>both words I have used in my own work with some frequency. (In fact, if you Google them, you will a link to a Wikipedia piece referencing my Matador series.)</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Thanks, Jesse -- in memory yet green.</span></p><div><br /></div>Steve Perryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12079658447270792228noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29640480.post-38580642768205317032023-12-16T16:41:00.000-08:002023-12-16T16:41:47.802-08:00And his hair was ...<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dxXW96DJkxFLWUP_H6lB7JDZ7yUqSApq8fQnjncd195yjj9s_BuikcAYz71K_4UVASanrPLeeTEJNQ' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br /> <p></p>Steve Perryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12079658447270792228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29640480.post-42499396482261964722023-10-17T10:19:00.001-07:002023-10-17T10:26:07.422-07:00Music for the Holiday Season<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dwARoJAj57WLN6kPtLTvmjlum4TTk9lNNM2jpDEWkc6t75AfvfHBx-f24yyJ2ROqx_WNDJvTOwJVEQ' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /> <p></p>Steve Perryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12079658447270792228noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29640480.post-91118698476161786472023-10-11T18:42:00.000-07:002023-10-11T18:42:13.942-07:00Pull-ups<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dwCi1f4ybvOWNH1hdCENDq7GGUbA0HBE_-InJGV63a1WOn5GtqJhV8BCLbMKfL8lroqUluDFPmwi4Y' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br /> <p></p>Steve Perryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12079658447270792228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29640480.post-5272006876734433822023-10-06T15:43:00.000-07:002023-10-06T15:43:36.690-07:00Screaming Steve<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dwRYg3CNWUsAf5TWznTyhqhRH-AtHaD24UvpP7VVOff5jBPizvGFEIYmBQyIWw8O1PWUX4nbvkk9kE' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br /> Might want to turn the sound down ...<p></p>Steve Perryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12079658447270792228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29640480.post-8726888282711823792023-10-05T15:48:00.000-07:002023-10-05T15:48:07.155-07:00Old She Done Me Wrong Song<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dxhjau6_v_ol-4tlYR67psFzLjS0rxuUYTlEY7JQIPNixiGXWGp8E4apwGvO-lFkzoGq8NgMgtCPc4' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br /><br /><p></p>Steve Perryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12079658447270792228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29640480.post-33838720143923783152023-09-17T11:21:00.003-07:002023-09-17T17:02:40.671-07:00I'm a Pretty Good Shooter, How Can I be a Stormtrooper?<p><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Some years ago, I engaged in discussions on the late Harlan Ellison’s webpage. </span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 29px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Harlan was not a computer guy. A friend who was set it up, and Harlan could post his comments. I knew Harlan slightly, was a fan of his writing and speaking.</span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 29px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">The discussions were sometimes lively and contentious, and there were some bright and clever folks who showed up for the fray. Some posted under pseudonyms because they were kinda famous and didn’t want to flash that around. Others just hid behind screen-noms so they could safely snark.</span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 29px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">There were rules, one of which was, you were allowed one post a day, so as not to clutter things up. Ellison had favorites, and would allow them to post more frequently, but pretty much, the laity were to speak their piece and then wait until the next day to continue -- unless Harlan asked them a direct question.</span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 29px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">One particular discussion involved a science fiction writer who was a Canadian. Upon attempting to cross the national border from the U.S. back into Canada, said writer got into a pissing match with a border patrolman. Words were exchanged, and the writer was marched off to the hoosegow.</span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">As I recall the backstory, the writer allowed that he had done nothing to merit an attack, and that the BP agents thumped him, MACEd him, and put the cuffs on, for no reason.</span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">The agents said that the routine inspection of his vehicle resulted in him stepping out of his car and getting surly. When told to get back into his car, he refused and got surlier, and physical.</span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">I wasn't there, I don't know what happened, but he was charged, arrested, bailed out the next day, and came back in the spring for his trial. ***</span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 29px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Many of Harlan’s fans and friends and other posters were liberals, shading into radicals. The outrage at this event was exclaimed high, loud, and repeatedly. How dare those jackbooted stormtroopers do such a thing! The writer was an innocent, beset by bullyboy thugs! The injustice of it! ACAB!</span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 29px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Lot of echoes there.</span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 29px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Being a liberal-shading-into-radical, one would expect me to be on that bandwagon, sloshing my beer and ranting about the goose-steppers.</span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 29px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">As somebody trained to be a journalist, I was curious, so I poked around, found the news accounts, the writer’s comments, those of the border patrol agent, other witnesses, and lo! the full-color picture of the innocent writer attacked for no reason whatsoever by the evil brown shirts was somewhat clearer than the fuzzy black-and-white snapshot offered to Harlan’s forum.</span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 29px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">So, I said, Um, perhaps there is more to be seen here? You should go look. I did not say he was guilty, mind you, only that further research might be beneficial.</span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 29px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Oh, my. The explosion of the liberal-left was deafening. How dare I!? What was wrong with me, that I would take the side of the fascist pigs? </span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 29px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Got called a jackbooted Nazi Fascist stormtrooper by a few of the serious spittle-spewers, which, I confess, I found hilarious. There are those on the Left who, if you are not in 100% agreement, count you as fully against them.</span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 29px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Since the pile-on was heavy, I was allowed to post more than once a day, and my refutation of the knee-jerk response was, I thought, reasoned, with, you know, <i>facts</i> and all. I was right, the mob was wrong, and I said so. Because my heart was pure, I had the strength of ten, and amongst the other folks who were capable of reasons and not simply cant, I gained a following. </span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 29px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Eventually, the arguments died down and we went on to some other tempest-in-a-teapot. I considered that a win, because, being right and all.</span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 29px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">But: Here’s the point of this long-winded backstory: A couple years later, on FaceBook, I friended a writer, one of the folks involved in that aforementioned discussion. He had not been the most vehement about me being a stormtrooper, but had been on that side of the table. Still, it had been a while, and that discussion well back in the rear-view mirror. I liked the writer’s work.</span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 29px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Howsoever, when I posted comments on this writer’s page, in most instances, if I said something even mildly critical? I got quick and hard pushback. Often for things that other posters had said or echoed, and for whom doing so got no such response.</span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 29px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Huh.</span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 29px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">It was just me, apparently. </span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 29px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">And I wondered: Am I still the jackbooted stormtrooper in this narrative? Did he hold onto that in some memory engram?</span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 29px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">I believe it is a possibility. That there is a supposition my stormtrooperness is so, and thus a prejudged expectation. </span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 29px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Not a major problem, and first-world at that, but interesting if that is the case.</span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">*** The writer was found guilty by the jury for obstruction, got a fine, sentence suspended.</span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 24px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 29px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 24px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 29px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Courier; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 24px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 29px;"><br /></p>Steve Perryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12079658447270792228noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29640480.post-31070693935433531062023-09-02T12:08:00.001-07:002023-09-02T12:11:13.239-07:00Before and After<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikE3lJzAPR4qSe-BDvXrMLX1NZenDrXHlWaUTSbCnVHbxDrmhTzfwu8w_j0ZrjA7dpfn9iZLhnM4c9A6kd2cm83KUYGFuCErZdDPuxEgfAqvz2R0_YKwI1BgLhJiFm0VG4Oipepi4oQaY3KbKRcMgcBaihWwePGBE2Qis2b6xzaGGk6gBI8Plg/s1775/Before%20&%20After.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="942" data-original-width="1775" height="202" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikE3lJzAPR4qSe-BDvXrMLX1NZenDrXHlWaUTSbCnVHbxDrmhTzfwu8w_j0ZrjA7dpfn9iZLhnM4c9A6kd2cm83KUYGFuCErZdDPuxEgfAqvz2R0_YKwI1BgLhJiFm0VG4Oipepi4oQaY3KbKRcMgcBaihWwePGBE2Qis2b6xzaGGk6gBI8Plg/w381-h202/Before%20&%20After.jpg" width="381" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"> Before, L., after, R. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Starting weight, 192 pounds; after six weeks, 195 pounds. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Second photo, 76th birthday. Click to see larger image.</span></div><p></p>Steve Perryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12079658447270792228noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29640480.post-50361007880092074822023-06-17T16:10:00.000-07:002023-06-17T16:10:30.357-07:00Flexing<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dxLaTELfA-bNDkvurb9Hpn8CN0is8yJPTnFWqGWzO9qLl86EbqctMQXTRFWeXjhHZuCaDBBwWZgEcQ' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br /> <p></p>Steve Perryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12079658447270792228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29640480.post-88996432286752496822023-04-11T14:24:00.001-07:002023-04-11T17:33:48.056-07:00Boots<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik0tOAnnVsG4f_mmKDE3jJeoXMH6UX-GW5vsldRQqJ_qQXDj19x9Xma0_Vxq3YjoeU7TlfKPZ3lq483WNRf3UGD2xqr0z2JaA-TjGWmYmIt_rhuoGtsIhK1FMhAUct63RLGq_y_78PogRxYoEodKiNF9Aiz92HM5Wxp8-SsicXN1nUGBP04w/s640/boots.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="498" data-original-width="640" height="249" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik0tOAnnVsG4f_mmKDE3jJeoXMH6UX-GW5vsldRQqJ_qQXDj19x9Xma0_Vxq3YjoeU7TlfKPZ3lq483WNRf3UGD2xqr0z2JaA-TjGWmYmIt_rhuoGtsIhK1FMhAUct63RLGq_y_78PogRxYoEodKiNF9Aiz92HM5Wxp8-SsicXN1nUGBP04w/s320/boots.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Here’s the story:</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 29px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">My friend Dan, his better half, Amy, and Charlie the Wonder Dog, came to visit me after my wife passed away. To take care of me, which they did, and for which I will ever be grateful.</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 29px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">They elected to stay in the trailer they towed, in the middle of a nasty heat spell, and whose AC demands overloaded any circuit I had in the house, but that’s another funny story.</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 29px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">So, RVs have, the larger ones, onboard waste tanks. One is for kitchen and bathroom sink drainage, and is called the gray water tank. The other is for sewage, and is deemed the black water tank.</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 29px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Over a period of time, these tanks fill, and must be drained. Dumping one’s tanks is a time-honored ritual known to all RV owners.</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 29px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Now, normally, this is a simple, easy procedure. One drives to a waste disposal place where this is done, hooks up a large, flexible hose to the outro pipe, sticks the end into an in-ground tank. The black water valve is opened first. When it is done draining, the gray water follows, which cleans out the hose somewhat. Valves closed, the hose is removed, rinsed out — one wears gloves doing this — and stored in a special compartment, and all done.</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 29px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">So, Dan — wearing cowboy boots, this part is important — takes the rig to a drainage site to perform this chore. He hated towing this thing, seriously hated it, and the rig, being semi-sentient, knew this.</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 29px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Arrives, he, at the site, hooks up the drainage hose, fastens it place, and opens the black water valve. </span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 29px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">But, no rush of black water.</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 29px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Because the trailer knows he hates it, and has taken umbrage at this.</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 29px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">So Dan, being a DIY kinda guy, says, Oh, no, you don’t, trailer! He figures that perhaps there is a blockage in the black water pipe.</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 29px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Here’s an idea: I’ll poke a stick up there and dislodge that blockage.</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 29px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Excuse me, I have to pause here, wait for the laughter to stop, which always takes a while, wipe the tears from my eyes, since I can’t type until this happens.</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 29px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Okay, okay, I’m good, I -- wait, hold on …</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 29px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Okay, no, really. I’m can do this.</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 29px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">I am going to skip ahead here, to the part where Dan comes home, enters the house, and Amy and Charlie and I call out: Hey, how’d it go?</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 29px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Imagine, if you would, a car full of angry, drunken sailors on shore leave who have somehow been accidentally transported to a church full of nuns instead of a house of ill repute at which they thought they were arriving. The language.</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 29px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Here upon, Dan steps into view. </span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 29px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Wearing running shoes.</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 29px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Why, Dan — why are you wearing running shoes? What happened to your boots?</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 29px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Okay, hold on a second, just a second, I’m okay. This part doesn’t take as long to get it back together.</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 29px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Whew. </span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 29px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">There is no need to gild the lily here. What happens when a full tank of black water whose drain pipe is blocked suddenly becomes unblocked? </span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 29px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Ever see one of those old movies where the drillers strike oil and a gusher of it spews fifty feet into the air and rains down upon the crew, who are smiling because now they are rich?</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 29px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Leave out the smile-we’re-rich! part, add in the drunken, angry sailors. And Dan.</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 29px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Stir.</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 29px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">That. That is how it went.</span></p>Steve Perryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12079658447270792228noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29640480.post-17610191791659117762023-03-28T13:24:00.002-07:002023-03-28T13:26:08.162-07:00Ukulele Practice - The Devil's Back in Town<p>Song by Mike Byers, based on the Dineh monster hunter chasing the Christian God ...</p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plhVZxe1qZQ">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plhVZxe1qZQ</a><br /></p><p><br /></p>Steve Perryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12079658447270792228noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29640480.post-34217679900756025672023-03-19T14:56:00.000-07:002023-03-19T14:56:01.836-07:00Ukulele Practice - Way Down in the Hole<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dzRYGcwn5UcUSVeHSizBzaolRw3SSbN8Uw3cageuz6aO8rxlavgpgu17cqiu-Hljs8Jbo25r1LjHz8' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br /><p></p>Steve Perryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12079658447270792228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29640480.post-45535105646603072202023-03-18T15:17:00.000-07:002023-03-18T15:17:54.366-07:00Ukulele Practice - Lola<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dyEkcjZUSP1dZjsATDRY78dA25JXWWvEEEQUWnoWqZowrQoIqbX6oAuvmt3q4RwzSppEO2uKkE5mVs' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br /> <p></p>Steve Perryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12079658447270792228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29640480.post-74433465794248364902023-03-18T15:15:00.001-07:002023-03-18T15:15:20.916-07:00Ukulele Practice - The Chain<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dw2da8un4246xmOy4TrO783vgi_ji4z3ECKbA_mI_lLJwD6-TbRpo9_pcgDvWRoeHOlTqjNDie85tU' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br /> <p></p>Steve Perryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12079658447270792228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29640480.post-79474402888492628332022-11-06T10:19:00.001-08:002022-11-06T10:19:35.585-08:00Johnny WaddFor viewers of a certain age ...<div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dxRK618G1N4U0i7nhY1fNlSHP6vMI_zWvHRcaAiBOTbahbKbr9HD8maMyouniO0AcVM1B1_FtjlMr4' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br /><div><br /></div>Steve Perryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12079658447270792228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29640480.post-89694347354925106622022-10-17T17:46:00.005-07:002022-12-01T16:29:39.718-08:00Dirisha Zuri - Nude Statuette<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dzed9tWIRkjbCd_RbReBplhIPWnrVI4jic82INt0DAJi0v9Iyii4QSww8257TszWZ8fXvA1i1-e-Us' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">A 1/6 scale nude statuette of Dirisha Zuri, from the Matador novels. </span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span>Sculpted by </span><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.85)" style="text-align: left;">Xunyue Xiao, SexySculptureXXY (Etsy), of Fuzhou, China, 3D-resin printing, hand-finished and painted.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.85)" style="font-size: medium; text-align: left;">Photo:</span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.85)" style="font-size: medium; text-align: left;">Top-lit on a CD base, to get the rainbow reflection.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.85)" style="font-size: 18px; text-align: left;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEqGKYuvin9VOFsusk7Tn5H9Yn5B3BpO8Ogmc1ZugJ3rG3X0CK1fTL9HMEXfxCkZC6b_BFJGIO4k7CgsijUA8ERtImxmF2w_AeHz2Mc5FIaPaNQq0VKtYoiXOQxJe2U-A-TQ7ofBk1Ly7NqXOuc9ajAFGChdaP2sBPKR6Smt8V9bzlk6yAhQ/s4032/Dirisha%20rainbow%20copy.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEqGKYuvin9VOFsusk7Tn5H9Yn5B3BpO8Ogmc1ZugJ3rG3X0CK1fTL9HMEXfxCkZC6b_BFJGIO4k7CgsijUA8ERtImxmF2w_AeHz2Mc5FIaPaNQq0VKtYoiXOQxJe2U-A-TQ7ofBk1Ly7NqXOuc9ajAFGChdaP2sBPKR6Smt8V9bzlk6yAhQ/s320/Dirisha%20rainbow%20copy.jpg" width="240" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM9sQJQkltTy_c1aHm8JHUvAQ3x7rbYvx0qdjjqWEjFWPM56hfOZcZeMJ2RLQAuX7rIIFh8t5yFPwnvQfZ0XhvN-NyfHuqd9o2bnji9btK8phO_LuSHHzbiAYnfAI0vF_TMLdqRFRMZOCtqiBs4zcT9Ao5esqfjnjkE3A_Ci2XvWbA38Lzlw/s1888/Dirisha:moon.HEIC" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1584" data-original-width="1888" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM9sQJQkltTy_c1aHm8JHUvAQ3x7rbYvx0qdjjqWEjFWPM56hfOZcZeMJ2RLQAuX7rIIFh8t5yFPwnvQfZ0XhvN-NyfHuqd9o2bnji9btK8phO_LuSHHzbiAYnfAI0vF_TMLdqRFRMZOCtqiBs4zcT9Ao5esqfjnjkE3A_Ci2XvWbA38Lzlw/s320/Dirisha:moon.HEIC" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghdqltnX0u3GUfvbaq6Tfmp-NcSLLC8eCBB1fejgsjJCn0e3XLeR7VcD9huWCtdhU_6YYXMpFg0rHN_1yLiNSpfJLGcyXUgLHcTQP1rnL2riMaktyolsmwGektviNra3CJ5CrNwdUmxetHhy-9v5B-stWpIKWrjOEz3h4SaL_lOUXmveNsFQ/s5452/matador.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="5452" data-original-width="3846" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghdqltnX0u3GUfvbaq6Tfmp-NcSLLC8eCBB1fejgsjJCn0e3XLeR7VcD9huWCtdhU_6YYXMpFg0rHN_1yLiNSpfJLGcyXUgLHcTQP1rnL2riMaktyolsmwGektviNra3CJ5CrNwdUmxetHhy-9v5B-stWpIKWrjOEz3h4SaL_lOUXmveNsFQ/s320/matador.JPG" width="226" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.85)" style="font-size: 18px; text-align: left;"><br /></span></span><p></p>Steve Perryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12079658447270792228noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29640480.post-13285396011347692272022-07-03T10:29:00.000-07:002022-07-03T10:29:48.029-07:00Make Me Laugh<p><span style="font-size: medium;"> <span style="font-family: Georgia; text-align: justify;">Make Me Laugh</span></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 7px; min-height: 14px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 7px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;">If you can write a good dramatic scene, you probably can learn to write a good comedy scene. They are cut from the same cloth. This is why the best comedians can, if pressed, generally do drama quite well. Steve Martin comes to mind. Robin Williams. Remember the guy who played the scummy corporation guy in <i>Aliens</i>? The comedian Paul Reiser.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 7px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The trick is, of course, doing one or the other well in the first place. If you can’t write anything for sour snake scat, starting with comedy is not an easy road. A comedy scene takes every bit as much work as a major dramatic scene, and the mistake a lot of people make is that they think because it’s supposed to be light and fluffy, it shouldn’t be work.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 7px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Wrong. It’s just as hard to bake a souffle as it is to broil a roast. Cary Grant never won an Oscar™ for his comedy roles but he could run with Spencer Tracy.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 7px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Here the cliche, the old saw, the grizzled saying: “Dying is easy. Comedy is hard.” Listen to stand-up comedians talk: You flop, nobody laughs, you <i>die</i>. If, however, the audience rolls on the floor slapping their livers and blowing scotch out their noses, you <i>killed</i>.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 7px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;">If you have the gift, it is magic and I’m not the one to tell you anything, skip this article. If you aren’t a natural, and you feel like a schlub every time you botch the punchline of a shaggy dog story, you can learn.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 7px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Um. To a degree.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 7px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Go to a science fiction convention, rock concert, retirement dinner. You’ll almost always find a guy who shouldn’t be allowed within fifty yards of a live microphone trying real, <i>real</i> hard to be funny. It makes you wish you had a gun to put him out of his–and the audience’s–misery. Few things sadder than somebody who thinks he’s hilarious and isn’t. God help us, it’s usually a man.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 7px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Hint #1: Don’t try to be funny.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 7px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;">You don’t even have to be funny in person to write funny. Trust me here.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 7px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;">All right, let’s start with two bottom-line basics:</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 7px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;">1) The best comedy comes from character. You can do joke-jokes, one-liners, tomato surprise stories and they can be very funny, but the stuff that people remember comes from inside. Lucille Ball’s Lucy was a bumbling and inept housewife who always got into trouble when she did something she knew she wasn’t supposed to. And virtually every stand-up comedian you see builds his or her act around a persona. They work the soldier-in-the-war-of-the-sexes, the angry-young-man, the storyteller, the ain’t-those-people-over-there-stupid? characterizations. It’s the same in writing. It doesn’t have to be someone who is intrinsically funny, it can bloom from somebody who is angry, mean or deadpan droll, but the deeper the character, the funnier the possible bit.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 7px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;">2) Comedy has structure. Just like a stage drama or a movie script, there are beats to a successful comedy routine, be it live or on a printer, and there are a few venues you need to know about. I’ll list six basic ones . Here: a) Slapstick b) Scorn c) Word play. d) Reverses. e) The Odd Couples. f) One, Two . . . Three!</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 7px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Before we get there, a brief aside on what’s really funny:</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 7px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Nobody <i>knows</i> what’s really funny.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 7px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Humor is a matter of experience and opinion and if you are the most hilarious person on the planet, if audiences go into seizures when you perform, and you do your best bit in front of a thousand people, I guarantee you, some of them won’t laugh. Because what you say will offend some of them. Just you being who you <i>are</i> will offend some of them. If you want everybody to like you, don’t try to be funny. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 7px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Generally, fat people usually don’t like fat jokes, gays don’t like queer jokes and the NRA doesn’t like Sarah Brady . . . Unless, of course, the teller is fat, gay or from the NRA, exactly in that order. You can joke about your own and get away with it when an outsider would get crucified for doing the same. I can tell southern jokes but I probably ought not to be telling black jokes, those don’t sound too good from my redneck cracker mouth. You can poke fun at something if you are one. You get laughs making fun of yourself as much as you will making sport of somebody else, as long as there is a butt somewhere–see, the truth is, almost all humor is at somebody’s–or some thing’s–expense. You are almost always laughing <i>at</i> somebody.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 7px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;">We laugh because we’re surprised or it makes us feel superior or it hits so hard and close to home we are on the edge of tears but it’s easier to laugh than cry. We laugh because it is exaggerated way too big or too small or even too dead on. And this last, the absolute funniest thing of all, is that nothing is as funny as the truth. I once heard a comedian reading a newspaper clipping about a jet plowing into a hotel full of people, then commenting on it. Article said, “Some of the hotel guests were surprised by the impact.”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 7px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Comedian said, “Some of the guests. <i>Some</i> of them. What about the others? The ones who weren’t surprised? Did one guy get up and say, ‘You know, Martha, I wouldn’t be a bit goddamned surprised if a big ole jet plane didn’t plow into us this morning.’ What the hell was anybody who wasn’t surprised doing there?” People died. But his take on it was funny.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 7px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Well, okay. I have a warped sense of humor, I used to work in a doctor’s office, but it was a liver-slapping-scotch-blower for me. There are people who look at me for this as if I sprinkle dried baby toes on my Grape Nuts. To them, I offer this:</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 7px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Fuck ‘em if they can’t take a joke.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 7px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;">If you try to make funny without offending anybody, nobody is going to laugh. You wind up doing family hour TV, el blando e blanco. Which is not to say you can’t be funny without being racist, sexist or scatological, but it takes a little more work.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 7px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;">(If you took away husband jokes, wife jokes and TV commercial jokes, you’d wipe out half of the stand-up comics in the biz. If you took away fart jokes, sexual innuendo and the word “motherfucker,” you’d eliminate another third, most of them black. Jewish mother jokes would take out another ten percent. And if you took away cheap shots and scatology, why, there goes ninety-three-percent of <i>Jurassic Park.</i>)</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 7px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Humor is risky. If you don’t offend somebody somewhere along the way, you aren’t doing your job. That pretty much applies to any kind of writing you do, in my opinion. You don’t have to be sand in the gears of the machine but you ought not to try to be full-time STP, either.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 7px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Um. I digress. Never mind. Let’s go over the basic formulas here. Formulae? Formications?</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 7px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;">a) Slapstick. Do I really need to explain this? If you’ve seen Laurel and Hardy or the Stooges, you know what it is. For a modern master, look at John Cleese, a man whose goose-stepping in the <i>Fawlty Towers</i> episode about the Germans still puts me on the floor every time I see it. If you are a visual writer, you can do this and describe it lovingly enough so it is funny. Remember that in slapstick, the injuries aren’t real, we are talking about Wile-e Coyote here. If it really hurts, it usually isn’t funny. Usually. But not always.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 7px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;">b) Scorn. This is the we’re-reasonable-but-look-at-them-dummies approach, sometimes called the angry-young-man among stand-ups. Read Mark Twain’s essay on Fenimore Cooper and if you have a brain in your head, you can’t not laugh. If you are a brainy writer, you will laugh more. And if you’re a brainy writer who ever shot a gun, you will need a box of Kleenex, a few Valium and perhaps some clean underwear.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 7px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;">c) Word Play. Here we have your puns, double-entendres, homonyms, spoonerisms, redundancies and like that. George Carlin and his words you can’t say on the air routine: “You can prick your finger but you damn well better not finger your prick.” Or the redundant terms: complete stop, free gift, past history. There’s Moe Howard taking the stooges to the Giva Dam. Or the lounge lizard who approaches the woman and says, “Hi, babe, what would you say to a little fuck?” She says, “Oh. Hello, little fuck.” The best of this is as clever as humor gets. The worst of it makes an audience groan loud enough to worry earthquake fanatics.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 7px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;">d) Reverses. This is where you are led to expect one thing and are served another in its place. A woman walking a dog passes a drunk on the street. Drunk says, “Hey, where’d you get that pig?” Woman says, “You drunken fool, it’s a dog, not a pig!” Drunk says, “I wasn’t talking to you, I was talking to the dog.” The two guys being stalked by a bear. One stops to put on running shoes. The other says, “You idiot, you can’t outrun a bear!” First guy says, “I don’t have to outrun the bear, I only have to outrun you.”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 7px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;">A man of the cloth goes into a bar in his hotel. Asks the redhaired waitress for a double bourbon. She says, “I didn’t know you guys drank this stuff.” He shrugs, says, “It’s in the bible.” They talk. He asks her to dinner. She lifts an eyebrow, but he says, “It’s in the bible.” So she shrugs and goes. They have dinner, he asks her to his room. They wind up in bed. She demurs at first, but he says, “It’s in the bible.” They screw, get finished and she says, “Well, that was nice, but I want to see where it says it in the bible.” So he pulls Gideon out of the bedside table drawer and opens it and on the inside cover somebody has written, “The redhaired waitress puts out.”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 7px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Here is where exaggerations and repetitions do their best work, too. Establish a line and go back to it. Milk it. Think about what you could do with something as easy as “Who, me?” dropped into the right place during 1) a party, 2) then a sex scene, 3) a subsequent court hearing.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 7px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;">d) Odd Couples. These are paired expressions, one, two, either, or: The classic Samuel Johnson line: “Your manuscript is both good and original, but, alas, the part that is good is not original and the part that is original is not good.” Or, he’s Brad Pitt’s double–twice his age, twice his weight. Which is also a reversal. You can mix and match ‘em.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 7px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;">e) One, Two ... Three! Sometimes called triples, this is one of the most important rules in being funny. Or in writing <i>per se</i>. Three is a magic number for our species. Three guys go into a bar ... a priest, a rabbi and a preacher are on an island ... A guy went here, then he went there, then the punchline ... Almost always you will work in threes. This gives you the most solid format for being funny. One, the set-up. Two, the arc. Three, the payoff. This is the same structure for most plays, movies and novels. The beginning, the middle and the end. Keep it in mind. Don’t forget it. Remember it always.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 7px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;">What I tell you three times must be true.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 7px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Now, let’s talk about what the late Danny Simon–Neil Simon’s older brother–called The Umbrella. When you do something funny, you should consider the overall context of the subject matter. What else is going on? What is is funny business doing in relation to everything else? It is a stand-alone set-piece? You can do that, but better it should relate to moving your story, developing your character, or telling us some exposition we didn’t know. If you have a frustration-sequence going, everything your protagonist touches turns to shit, then what is your point? You need one, you know, a point. If you are going to arrive at it, you must set it up properly. Until you get a feel for it, diagramming a comedy bit isn’t a bad idea. Break it into the three pieces, see where you want it to go and what it is supposed to do besides be funny. In a story or a novel, even a script, being funny alone isn’t enough.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 7px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Probably the most important thing in writing humor is the same thing that is important in writing any kind of fiction, SF in particular: Imagination. You have to look at something and think “What if . . .?” so it brings forth a smile.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 7px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Let’s spitball off the top of my head. Now there’s a colorful mixed metaphor.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 7px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Take the old Superman TV series, one of my favorite themes for comedy. What if it were being done today? What would the music for the opening be? Rap, maybe? Like, “It’s Superman and that ain’t no lie/ he come from a planet way up in the sky/ he faster than a bullet, he stronger than a train/ he hangs wid a bitch name of Lois Lane/ Don’ get in his way, don’ make him mad/ it’d be the worst party that you ever had . . ./</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 7px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Or what if the Academy Awards established an Oscar™ for Best Idiot Plot? Who’d win that one? The residents of Metropolis for not knowing who the fuck Clark Kent was? Can we take up a collection to send an optician there? Wouldn’t you like to have the white cane concession for the Daily Planet’s lobby? </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 7px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Or would the award go to the crew of the <i>Nostromo</i>?</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 7px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Start a comedy file. Anything that strikes you as funny, drop into it. Someday you might be able to work it into a story. In Portland, a citizen activist whose last name is “Squirrel” sued the police chief. Know what the Chief’s name was at the time? Charles Moose. I swear, it’s true. Right there in the newspaper, though they refrained from using the headline I would have used. Rocky and Bullwinkle fans would love it.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 7px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;">How will you know when you can write funny? Here’s the test. Write something you think is really funny. Give it to somebody who doesn’t know you. If they laugh aloud where they are supposed to, you probably got it right. Unlike stand-up, where you die if you blow a line, you can revise and rewrite a story as many times as you need to, you don’t have to let it out of the house until you get it right. You can gradually get to be funny and nobody ever has to know that in person you always forget the punchline, “I got your goddamn canoe right here!”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 7px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;">If you can make me cry, you likely have the ability to turn that coin over. But it is a skill, like writing a fight scene or a sex scene. You have to practice, cut and prune, spackle and paste and work at it. You don’t get into the NBA unless you spend a lot of years bouncing a basketball. You can’t write funny unless you do enough of it to get the feel for it. Might as well start now.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 7px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Go ahead. Make me laugh. I can use it and these days, so can the rest of the world. Sometimes laughter is all that keeps the dark away. If you can provoke it, you will be loved for it.</span></p><div><br /></div>Steve Perryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12079658447270792228noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29640480.post-6329604502991498412021-07-22T23:10:00.003-07:002021-07-22T23:16:42.921-07:00Also Sprach Zarathustra<p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-W4owEC7XLeo/YPpc-xvv2LI/AAAAAAAAMvk/DhwGKRI-pOwH9ugqx00N9OFjPsX6DapBgCLcBGAsYHQ/s816/4C990DCB-9085-421E-ACDE-CAB30BCE2982.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="816" data-original-width="598" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-W4owEC7XLeo/YPpc-xvv2LI/AAAAAAAAMvk/DhwGKRI-pOwH9ugqx00N9OFjPsX6DapBgCLcBGAsYHQ/w294-h400/4C990DCB-9085-421E-ACDE-CAB30BCE2982.jpeg" width="294" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">If Samuel L. Jackson had played the character Dave in the movie 2001,</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"> can you </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">imagine how that conversation would have gone with Hal?</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"> </span></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.4px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">I can hear that dialog, truly I can:</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.4px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">“I’m sorry, Dave, I can’t do — ”</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.4px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">“Don’t tell me what you can’t fuckin’ <span style="font-style: italic;">do, </span>mothefucker, I said, Open the goddamned motherfuckin’ door <span style="font-style: italic;">right</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">fuckin</span>’ <span style="font-style: italic;">now</span> or I will kick your motherfuckin’ ass to kingdom come! You hear me, you motherfuckin’ Play Station?!”</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">“Uh … opening the door now, Dave.”</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.4px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">‘You goddamned right about that!”</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.4px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.4px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.4px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.4px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.3px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.4px;"><span style="font-size: 14.3px;"></span><br /></p>Steve Perryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12079658447270792228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29640480.post-77792434343712231972021-07-19T20:06:00.005-07:002021-07-20T09:10:10.522-07:00Everybody Was Kung Fu Fighting<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6d8sYYk7Pxg/YPY63x6eSyI/AAAAAAAAMvc/YLoQrZAGzaU5BsVWIICKJItkQqbyz1GbACLcBGAsYHQ/s400/0B7E1AAC-9498-47CA-B0C4-8542553AFA0D.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="370" data-original-width="400" height="370" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6d8sYYk7Pxg/YPY63x6eSyI/AAAAAAAAMvc/YLoQrZAGzaU5BsVWIICKJItkQqbyz1GbACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h370/0B7E1AAC-9498-47CA-B0C4-8542553AFA0D.gif" width="400" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br />A comment on a FB thread about cherry-picking martial arts techniques brought this up.</span><p></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21.5px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">People want to get a neato move they can plug into what they know, and while that is possible, it usually doesn’t work that way.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21.5px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Handing you the steering wheel without the car isn’t useful if you need to drive somewhere.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21.5px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Went to a seminar once that featured some world-class teachers offering SE Asian arts — mostly silat, some kali and escrima. Easy to see how similar these are when compared to, say, Japanese or African styles. </span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Similar SE Asian roots, but not the same.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21.5px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">You have to go with an open mind, but the more training you have in a system, the harder it is to accept something that goes against your training.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21.5px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Not that it is necessarily bad, but that it doesn’t mesh with what you know, you won’t be able to integrate it into what you have, even if you agree with its efficacy.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21.5px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Teacher shows you a thing, It runs contrary to what you have, You won’t voice it, to be polite, but you will think it: Dude, if I try that against my guys, it will get me killed.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21.5px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Maestro from this kali style shows you some stick stuff. Hold it like this, and swing it thus.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21.5px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Cool.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21.5px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Done, moving on.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21.5px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Next guy, from a different kali style arrives, and you step up with your stick. He looks at you as though you have turned into an upright pig. No, no, no! you don’t hold the stick *there!* Hold it this way!</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21.5px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Yes, Guro.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21.5px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Third guy starts his session. And you know where this is going, right?</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21.5px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">This is one reason why cherry-picking similar styles is a problem. The Maestro’s grip works because of the rest of what that style does; the Guro is doing something different, for which his grip is more appropriate. Third guy, same-same.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21.5px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">None of them is how your teacher offers it.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21.5px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">A style will have underlying laws, principles, and what you do adheres to these, else there is no consistent system. Not a question as to whether it is good or bad, but that there will be a more-efficient or less-efficient way to move, and the goal is more</span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 18px;">.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21.5px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21.5px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21.5px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21.5px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21.5px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21.5px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21.5px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21.5px;"><br /></p>Steve Perryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12079658447270792228noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29640480.post-25409198966904440222021-07-15T12:59:00.001-07:002021-07-15T13:25:35.204-07:00Good Company<p><span style="background-color: #fafafa; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;">These days, I frequently order things online, and recently I had such a pleasant experience I want to mention it.</span></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fafafa; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">I found some funky vitamins I wanted to try, sold by a company in Vancouver, B.C., Vivid Wellness. </span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fafafa; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.5px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fafafa; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">https://vividwellness.ca</span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fafafa; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.5px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fafafa; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">They specialize in health and beauty products, alternative medicines, CBD, cannabis, tinctures, teas, extracts, that kinda stuff.</span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fafafa; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.5px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fafafa; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">(Legal here; in some places, maybe not, I am not encouraging you to break local laws.)</span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fafafa; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.5px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fafafa; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">So I ordered the capsules. Time passed, they didn’t show up when they were supposed to. Make a long story short, the post office got lost on the way to my house.</span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fafafa; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.5px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fafafa; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Sent an email to the company, and they were on it. Tracked the package, offered to refund my money, ship a replacement, and if somehow both packages showed up? I could keep them both.</span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fafafa; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.5px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fafafa; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Pleasant people, and they stayed on it, reshipped the stuff, and added in a little freebie and an apologetic note, which arrived shortly thereafter.</span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fafafa; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.5px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fafafa; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">I ordered some other things, and they remembered who I was, and thanked me for giving them another chance, even though the problem had not been their fault.</span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fafafa; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.5px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fafafa; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">I was delighted with their actions and attitude. Not trying to sell you any particular thing here, just pointing out that my experience with these folks was as good as it gets. </span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fafafa; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.5px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fafafa; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">I hope they prosper, and in this day and age, such service and attention to detail is outright refreshing, so I expect they will do well based on that alone.</span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fafafa; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.5px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fafafa; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.5px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fafafa; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.5px;"><br /></p>Steve Perryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12079658447270792228noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29640480.post-37706051105500351192021-07-14T10:14:00.001-07:002021-07-14T10:18:59.623-07:00Jockery<p><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-u5SpV0psQt8/YO8cTBp7V6I/AAAAAAAAMvQ/sUwJZEBsx3U7V-0hnp1Lje6QwdoyZ5bYgCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/8FBEA7DD-DE2A-4408-B94D-8EFD9EA459FA.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-u5SpV0psQt8/YO8cTBp7V6I/AAAAAAAAMvQ/sUwJZEBsx3U7V-0hnp1Lje6QwdoyZ5bYgCLcBGAsYHQ/w300-h400/8FBEA7DD-DE2A-4408-B94D-8EFD9EA459FA.jpeg" width="300" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: #f5f7f9; font-family: Georgia;">My most serious gym-rat days were the year I turned forty. Had a decent home gym, free weights, multi-station machine, rower, stair-stepper, mini-trampoline.</span><span style="background-color: #f5f7f9; font-family: Georgia;"> </span></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #f5f7f9; font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.5px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #f5f7f9; font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Logged in every set and rep.</span></p>
<p style="background-color: #f5f7f9; font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.5px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #f5f7f9; font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Came to realize that a full-body workout every other day was over-training. Twice a week was the new reality.</span></p><p style="background-color: #f5f7f9; font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #f5f7f9; font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">I had an exercise I did on the chin/pull-up bar that worked my arms and lats pretty good — drop-rep sets.</span></p>
<p style="background-color: #f5f7f9; font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.5px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #f5f7f9; font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Started with ten reps, palms facing away. Dismounted, went and did some leg stuff, returned to the bar, did nine reps. Went to do some upper body push-stuff, bench presses, back, eight reps.</span></p>
<p style="background-color: #f5f7f9; font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.5px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #f5f7f9; font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">And so on, until the last set, one rep. Over the course of thirty minutes or so, fifty-five total.</span></p>
<p style="background-color: #f5f7f9; font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.5px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #f5f7f9; font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Haven’t done that in a while.</span></p>
<p style="background-color: #f5f7f9; font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.5px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #f5f7f9; font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Lot of records in the pull-up, chin-up world. For instance, over a twenty-four-hour period, we are talking about 7600 reps. </span></p>
<p style="background-color: #f5f7f9; font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.5px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">The record for the most pull-ups without dismounting from the bar is held by <a href="http://www.jankaresfitness.cz/">Jan Kareš</a> (Czech Republic) who did 238 pull-ups in 34 minutes on 18 November 2017 in Hergetova Cihelna, Czech Republic. Wide grip, bouncy, but still.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">He was allowed to “rest” by hanging by one arm from time to time …</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Female record for pull-ups in one minute? </span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Thirty-four, held by a fitness model/trainer Rupa Kshatriya Hulet. Yeah, her form is maybe not the best, a wide-grip and bouncy, but thirty-four in a minute? </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">On a good day, I might gut out a set of fourteen reps total, and the last couple would be a real strain and real slow …</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span face="TimesNewRomanPS-BoldMT" style="font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #f5f7f9; font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.5px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #f5f7f9; font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.5px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #f5f7f9; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.5px;"><br /></p>Steve Perryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12079658447270792228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29640480.post-80624997149047044352021-07-13T09:22:00.008-07:002021-07-13T17:08:19.997-07:00La Musica, La Musica!<p> <span style="color: #15222b; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold;">WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2008</span></p>
<p style="color: #15222b; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 11.7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.2px;"><span style="font-size: 11.66px; font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="color: #2b1516; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 20.9px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 20.93px; text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://themanwhonevermissed.blogspot.com/2008/11/heavy-movie-music.html">Heavy Movie Music</a></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In discussing <span style="font-style: italic;">The Day the Earth Stood Still</span> and Bernard Herrmann's wonderful orchestral theme, I was reminded of two other musical pieces that create vivid images for me.</p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The first is <span style="font-style: italic;">The Emperor's Ming's Theme, </span>from the old Flash Gordon movie serial. It was from Franz Liszt's<span style="font-style: italic;"> Les Preludes,</span> and whenever Ming the Merciless showed up, the band cranked, particularly the last section.</p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I can hear it now.</p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And the other is, of course, <span style="font-style: italic;">Vader's Theme</span>, sometimes called <span style="font-style: italic;">The Imperial March</span>, by John Williams. I can't help but think he was trying to evoke the same sense of dark majesty.</p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Then, just to screw with your head, there are these:</p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%2750s_progression">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%2750s_progression</a></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I%E2%80%93V%E2%80%93vi%E2%80%93IV_progression">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I–V–vi–IV_progression</a></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And the mash-up:</p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFpryVMgni0">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFpryVMgni0</a></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><br /></p>Steve Perryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12079658447270792228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29640480.post-56027247624712242492021-07-11T10:24:00.000-07:002021-07-11T10:24:05.293-07:00The Not So Right Stuff<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sWXTPDAu3HM/YOslJivUh7I/AAAAAAAAMvI/AviE4mS14Xg7_wEjsei8ly9KOzJrpLZbACLcBGAsYHQ/s1992/737ADAD2-99C3-4CAD-B3B2-F5D7087E349D.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1992" data-original-width="1884" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sWXTPDAu3HM/YOslJivUh7I/AAAAAAAAMvI/AviE4mS14Xg7_wEjsei8ly9KOzJrpLZbACLcBGAsYHQ/w379-h400/737ADAD2-99C3-4CAD-B3B2-F5D7087E349D.jpeg" width="379" /></span></a></div><br /><p></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21.5px;"><br /></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Slept late, because the dream was so interesting I wanted to see where it was going.</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21.5px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Scientists somehow came up with what was essentially a magic number. If you used this number when you called somebody, the ensuing conversation would be perfectly clear, not just soundwise, but contentwise — there would be no misunderstanding. Both parties would get it, completely, total, perfect clarity. </span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21.5px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">There was some worry that this might not be a good idea, because maybe you didn’t want that level of truth, but they did it anyhow.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21.5px;"><br /></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 18px;">A</span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">mazing enough in the context, but wait! there is more!</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21.5px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">I was allowed to test it, and the scientists arranged a call for me — to George Harrison. Didn’t even have to use a device, merely thinking of the person you wanted to call did the trick.</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Hey, George. How’s it going?</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21.5px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">We had a fascinating conversation, George and I, despite the fact he has been dead for almost twenty years. None of which conversation I can recall in detail, but the connection was the incredible thing.</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21.5px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Then, I went and got a Cherry Slurpee, and was irritated that, because it was too liquid-y, I had to wait for it to freeze properly. I mean, I could talk to George Harrison, but the 7-Eleven couldn’t get the slurpee right?</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21.5px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Woke up from that to watch a billionaire play with his new toy, based on tried-and-true technology older than I am. Listened to CNN and CNBC’s announcers gush and bubble as if this was the most exciting new thing since the wheel.</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21.5px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Gosh, wow, gee! Holy science fiction, Batman!</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21.5px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">I am a space wonk. I got up as a kid to watch the first NASA launches, Shepard, Glenn, the moon missions, and I was impressed then.</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21.5px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Dueling billionaires? A <i>rocket</i> <i>glider</i>?</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21.5px;"><br /></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Chuck Yeager broke the level-flight sound barrier in the Bell X-1, launched from a B-29, in 1947. That was, according to the wiki, the 50th flight of the little rocket plane.</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21.5px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">1947. </span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">50th flight.</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21.5px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">New right stuff, Sir Billionaire Ricky? With the shameless self-promotion and commercial in your victory speech? Spaceport in the New Mexico desert. Without enough water to flush the toilets? Tarantulas ambling across the tarmac? Quarter million bucks for a ride, up and down, home for dinner and bragging rights?</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">What you do today, Rodney?</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Oh, well, I flew into space, got my astronaut wings, then zipped home in the new Gulfstream. How’s the veal? Cook wanted to try a new recipe …</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21.5px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Not as impressed as I was watching Alan Shepard in 1961 as the first American in space, and him walking in the moon in 1971.</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21.5px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Oh, the magic number?</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21.5px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">6805. </span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21.5px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Your mileage may vary …</span></p>Steve Perryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12079658447270792228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29640480.post-64921103311258672262021-07-06T14:31:00.001-07:002021-07-06T14:37:03.320-07:00Chop Socky<p></p><br /><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-v2Y1gHkdPNo/YOTJ6Da8PTI/AAAAAAAAMvA/f4zbKDJKDnY9_fWgL17J-LVMcJf54ZJfACLcBGAsYHQ/s660/89820DA7-731D-4DC0-8C5E-11E245D7D901.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="660" data-original-width="562" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-v2Y1gHkdPNo/YOTJ6Da8PTI/AAAAAAAAMvA/f4zbKDJKDnY9_fWgL17J-LVMcJf54ZJfACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/89820DA7-731D-4DC0-8C5E-11E245D7D901.jpeg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">So, the martial art that I practice is usually referred to simply as “silat,” but it has a longer and more specific name:</p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.5px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Pukulan Pentjak Silat Sera Plinck.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.5px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">While you might at first glance think this is something served with peanut sauce, each word has a different connection to what it is we mean when we point at it.</p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.5px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Let me break it down for you:</p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.5px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">“Pukulan,” whose Malay/Indonesian root is almost certainly “pukul,” means “hit.” Word also can mean to “beat,” or “beating.”</p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.5px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">So for our purposes, Pukulan generally means striking, and more with a fist or something held in the hand.</p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.5px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In our system, the striking is connected to distance and footwork that will allow the blow to land. </p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.5px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">“Pentjak Silat” -- also spelled "pencak," with the "c" now taking the "tj" sound, for reasons having to do with Dutch colonialism and Indonesian nationalism -- is a fighting art from Southeast Asia, mostly Malaysia and Indonesia.</p>
<p style="color: #040c13; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.5px;"><br /></p>
<p style="color: #040c13; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">“Pentjak silat” means "the motions of fighting." And generally, are blade- and weapons-based.</p>
<p style="color: #040c13; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.5px;"><br /></p>
<p style="color: #040c13; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">“Pentjak” refers more to the <span style="font-style: italic;">form</span> it takes, “silat,” to fighting per se. And it's a fairly new term. A hundred years ago, that wasn't what it was called. Just as Native Americans called themselves by their tribes -- Sioux, or Apache, for instance, and then subdivided those names into others -- Lakota or Chiricahua or Mescalero -- and there were no "Indians," thus did the Malaysians and Indonesians name their local arts.</p>
<p style="color: #040c13; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.5px;"><br /></p>
<p style="color: #040c13; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Lot of them, too, every village had its own styles and teachers.</p>
<p style="color: #040c13; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.5px;"><br /></p>
<p style="color: #040c13; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">“Sera” (and in some branches, a “K” has been added to the end, “Serak,” but which ‘k’ is silent) refers to the creator of the art, reputedly one Bapak (an honorific) Sera, a word that has several meanings, depending on spelling and accent. It can mean "hoarse." It also means "owl," and thus "wise," and with the accent on the first syllable, it means to "confuse," or to "scatter confusion," and thus "to decoy" or "deceive." It is also a shade of red.</p>
<p style="color: #040c13; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.5px;"><br /></p>
<p style="color: #040c13; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Pick one, nobody knows for sure. Or maybe they all apply: The creator was a wily, sneaky, tricky, hoarse, red-haired guy.</p><p style="color: #040c13; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p>
<p style="color: #040c13; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Sera came from West Java, and there are a lot of antecedent arts and incredible origin stories we’ll skip over for now.</p>
<p style="color: #040c13; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.5px;"><br /></p>
<p style="color: #040c13; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">There is much contention about the founder, his senior students, where the lineage went, and who learned what from whom, when, and where. That’s a long and unresolvable fight for another day.</p>
<p style="color: #040c13; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.5px;"><br /></p>
<p style="color: #040c13; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Oral history is sometimes not worth the paper upon which it wasn’t written.</p>
<p style="color: #040c13; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.5px;"><br /></p>
<p style="color: #040c13; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The final word in the title is “Plinck,” the family name of the Dutch-Indonesian-American senior teacher from whom I have learned what little I know of the system.</p>
<p style="color: #040c13; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.5px;"><br /></p>
<p style="color: #040c13; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">He didn’t ask for that inclusion; I took it upon myself to add it about a decade ago, to differentiate from branches of our art taught by other teachers.</p>
<p style="color: #040c13; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.5px;"><br /></p>
<p style="color: #040c13; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">There are similarities, but what we do isn’t what they do, and I didn’t want people looking at those teachers and thinking we are the same.</p>
<p style="color: #040c13; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.5px;"><br /></p>
<p style="color: #040c13; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I also took it upon myself at the same time to add an honorific to the designation “Guru,” (which means “teacher,”) that being “Maha,” or “great.”</p>
<p style="color: #040c13; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.5px;"><br /></p>
<p style="color: #040c13; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">So, the name means, loosely interpreted: </p>
<p style="color: #040c13; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.5px;"><br /></p>
<p style="color: #040c13; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">“The hitting, fighting, martial art from Indonesia created by Bapak Sera, as taught by (Maha Guru Stevan) Plinck.”</p>
<p style="color: #040c13; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.5px;"><br /></p>
<p style="color: #040c13; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Just so you know.</p>
<p style="color: #040c13; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.5px;"><br /></p>
<p style="color: #040c13; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.5px;"><br /></p>
<p style="color: #040c13; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.5px;"><br /></p>
<p style="color: #040c13; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.5px;"><br /></p>
<p style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18.2px;"><br /></p></div><br />Steve Perryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12079658447270792228noreply@blogger.com0