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- From: mhirsch@dynastar.princeton.edu (Michael Hirsch)
- Subject: MA in Literature
- Message-ID: <MHIRSCH.93Jan27121556@dynastar.princeton.edu>
- Originator: news@nimaster
- Sender: news@Princeton.EDU (USENET News System)
- Nntp-Posting-Host: dynastar.princeton.edu
- Organization: Princeton University Department of Computer Science
- Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1993 17:15:56 GMT
- Lines: 44
-
- Instead of MA in movies, how about books. Here's one that had me
- laughing for hours. I'm still chuckling. My father read this book
- and asked me to explain it.
-
- The book is "Singapore" by John Ball. The hero is your basic Pasadena
- cop with black belts in Karate and Aikido who is dragged into
- international espionage in singapore. (Good start, huh?) Ultimately,
- he is attacked by someone who says "You need not try your Karate. The
- last man I killed was a Karate master."
-
- Well this so terrifies our hero that he switches to Aikido strategy.
-
- The attacker comes with a knife. Hero defends with kotegaeshi ("his
- wrist locked in the deady grip of _Kote-Gaeshi_"). The description of
- it is almost correct.
-
- He finishes off the technique with a wrist dislocation, but it is best
- to use the authors own words: "With that movement he completed
- _Ushiro_Hiji-Tori_, one of the deadliest and effective techinques
- [sic] of aikido." BWAHA HA HA.
-
- (For those who don't speak Aikido, "ushiro hiji tori" means "rear
- elbow grab". It is used to describe the initial attack from which a
- defense would, proceed, and is not a technique in and of itself. Even
- as an attack it is pretty ineffective and feeble.)
-
- But the attacker is not just an ordinary attacker. A dislocated wrist
- doesn't stop him from putting another knife in his other hand and
- attacking again. This time "Tibbs spun to the right and caught the
- man's left wrist in _Katate-tori_Ryote-Mochi_Nikyo_. It was a complex
- move, but..."
-
- Quite complex. It is a wrist lock done from a two handed grab. How
- did he get the knife wielding attacker with one bad wrist to grab him
- with two hands? Unfortunately, the book never explains.
-
- The rest of the book was kind of stupid yet entertaining and not
- awful. This stuff starts around p. 187 if you want to browse it yourself.
- --
-
-
- Michael D. Hirsch mhirsch@cs.princeton.edu
- Computer Science Department Voice: (609) 258-1751
- Princeton NJ, 08544 FAX: (609) 258-1771
-