Something to look forward to

Interesting story in yesterday’s WSJ about The Greatest Generation taking up “cane fighting”, AKA “cane fu”.

Just reading the opening grafs I flashed back to one summer when I was taking a course in writing healthcare materials for low literacy levels. It was held at a small (somewhat stark) college near Portland, Maine, which was also hosting a high school football camp and some Elder Hostel activities.

All three groups shared the cafeteria facilities for breakfast and lunch. (Come dinner time I bolted to nearby boîtes for seafood and white wine.) Now, the beefed up tackles and halfbacks were boisterous, but generally well-behaved.

But God help you if you got between one of the Elder Hostiles and his bran flakes. They had no compunction whatsoever about shoving you out of the way.

I shudder to think what that experience would be like if they’d known about this form of exercise.

For the record, I do not own a cane. However I do possess a blackthorn walking stick, given me by a gentleman caller on the occasion of my graduation from college. He’s a Sherlockian, and the stick is similar to that carried by Dr. James Mortimer in The Hound of the Baskervilles.

Being a stick there’s no hook, but that is one solid piece of hardwood, and I assure you that were I to crack someone’s head he’d be well and truly bopped.

Just sayin’...