Wax On, Wax Off, Wax Poetic

There's no "Idea" contained within this post, it's just a smaple ofhte many conversationsn we have every day. Since no else really reads this blog, I'm pretty sure I'm only posting this for posterity and to have a record of it for us to laugh about in a few years. We connected Aaron Burr to the Atari 2600 without even realizing it.

The following is a conversation between Tom, Joel, and Ken (Steve e-mail wasn't working that day):

Ken: Happy Anniversary Aaron Burr. On this day in 1804 he shot Alexander Hamilton. Now for the fact I was clueless about. Aaron Burr was Vice President at the time.

Tom: Yeah - he was Jefferson's VP, I believe!

Joel: I always forget that. You think Cheney would make a bigger deal about that kind of thing when people accuse him of stuff.

"Sure, I leaned on the Pentagon to give an enormous, no-bid contract to my old cronies at Haliburton... but at least I didn't shoot anyone."

Ken: Except that he did...

Joel: Ooh... good call. And they weren't even dueling.

Ken: Yeah. At least Burr was trying to do something and succeeded. That shows determination and commitment. Cheney was carless.

Tom: Did you ever read the story of the duel? It's pretty interesting. Some say that Hamilton shot away" from Burr, as if to say, "I'm not going to kill you." I guess it is a way to still keep your honor.

Burr didn't care and shot Hamilton anyway. I think he got it in the gut and then died while they rowed him away from the island the duel was held on.

Ken: That's awesome. I am really fascinated by this idea of "honor" and the lengths people will go to to save face, regardless of how ridiculous.

I just finished this book called "Monster of Florence". If you get a chance, pick it up. It's about a serial killer that haunted the Tuscan hills around Florence for 20+ years. The killings themselves were strange and there are a lot of shady characters involved, but the second half of the book deals mostly with the police and prosecutors and the ridiculous theories they come up with in order to find someone to blame for the killings and other evidence so that they can save face and their supposed reputation.

Tom: Whenever I hear "honor" I think of the horrible acting in Karate Kid 2. The funny thing? It's still better than KK3!

Ken: I don't know Karate Kid 3 was pretty good if you were a Bonsai enthusiast or liked wearing pony-tails.

Tom: I don't think there's a better offensive one-word description of KK2 than:

Gay.

Ken: Peter Cetera heartily agrees

Tom: I rest my case... Fill in the blank: "I am the man, who will fight, for your _______."

Ken: "Right to have a ceremonial dance at the old castle after the typhoon using the drum technique which is basically just flailing your arms back and forth in front of you" ???

Tom: I think that's it. Remember, when this movie happened, it happened at the end of the school year (Ali dumped Daniel after the prom). So, working backwards, Daniel started doing karate just after Halloween - when he got destroyed by Cobra Kai in skeleton costumes.

So if we say the Daniel/Chosun fight happened sometime in July (I'll even spot him a month)... That means Daniel only had 8 full months AT BEST of Karate training.

Drum technique or not, there is NO WAY Daniel-san wins that fight against a guy whose whole life has been karate - and teaches it in town!

Tom: Oh yeah - in case you weren't joking, the last word in the line of that Cetera song was "honor." I know the words to the cetera song off by heart. At least that line.

Ken: Unfortunately I know way too much of that song.
"Like you knight in shining armor, from a long time ago...!

Joel: I was in transit to campus, so I couldn't weigh in on KK2 until now, but I just wanted to add: Yes, the drum technique was ridiculously stupid, but (!) remember at the end how everyone in the audience is using their drum set and Chozen and Daniel are looking around like "What's going on?" and then Daniel figures it out and starts flailing? I got to give it to Daniel at that point because for someone who had been training in karate all his life and teaching it locally, Chozen would have to have been ridiculously stupid not to figure out the technique first. So, at that point, he deserves to lose.

Tom: All I'm saying is that Chosen should have never been in that situation to begin with. And it's not like the drum is some mystical non-defensible thing?

Now I have to go watch that movie again. : )

Joel: That is a good point.

And because this has got me thinking about it: Does anyone remember the KK2 game for the NES? My friend had it and whenever we would fight 1-on-1 he was usually Chozen who had the ability to walk from one side of the screen to the another (i.e., exit on the right and appear on the left) but Daniel couldn't.

I could never figure out if that was a glitch or if it was supposed to be symbolic of something, but it was annoying.

Tom: I never knew/remembered the KK2 game. However, that glitch was on the original Atari 2600 soccer game. I could kick the ball ahead of me, turn backwards and go through the left of the screen and appear on the right, picking the ball up. Do this two times and the defense is in the dust and you could score.