Brendan I. Koerner's Blog, page 138

Redeeming the Shillelagh

The 1988 B-movie “classic” Bloodsport is notable for three things: Forest Whitaker’s nuanced supporting performance, Bolo Yeung’s ‘roided-out pectorals, and the novel highlighting of non-Asian martial arts. Microkhan, for one, was first introduced to capoeira through the film, and has been a fan ever since (which meant that his time in Salvadaor de Bahia was a little slice of heaven).

But Bloodsport fell short by not including an Irish martial artist among the kumite competitors. It turns out th

Crack Your Back, Take Your Jack

British science writer Simon Singh is no fan of chiropractors. In fact, he thinks the vast majority of what they do is pure quackery, and he spends a fair chunk of his book Trick or Treatment? making that abundantly clear. Spinal adjustments that can alleviate a range of ailments? Pshaw, says Singh (as does Microkhan).

The British Chiropractic Association has taken great exception to Singh’s attacks, and is now suing him for libel. In a delicious twist straight out of that Simpsons episode guest

“Crossover to the True Hybrid”

When Microkhan posted yesterday about a California mule festival, he had no idea he was getting mixed up in a national spat. As several kind readers brought to our attention, the 40-year-old Mule Days celebration is a Johnny-come-lately compared to Mule Day (singular) in Columbia, Tenn. The hoedown in the Volunteer State is said to date all the way back to the 1840s, when it started as an annual livestock show. It’s since grown into a nearly week-long party sponsored by the likes of Purity Dairi

The Mustard Gas Legacy

En route to the Indo-Burmese jungle, the main character in Now the Hell Will Start spent several weeks at a British rest camp called Deolali, about 125 miles from Bombay. Prior to World War II, the camp had been used as a holding area for British soldiers who’d completed their service in Asia, and were finally bound for Liverpool, Glasgow, or wherever else home might be. Unfortunately, many of these soldiers had been driven mad by the conditions of their service, which typically involved endemic

Grind Seasoning

Microkhan never tires of reading about the semi-ingenious concealment methods employed by drug smugglers. In today’s installment, an American college student allegedly attempts to shimmy her way out of Guyana while carrying gobs of cocaine. Her defense upon being caught, as explained by her lawyer to a Guyanese magistrate, is somewhat less-than-convincing:

“It was quite unfortunate, however, Madam, that when she was going back to the US, her relatives in New Jersey had contacted her and asked her

Triumph of the Mule People

For an animal primarily known for its stubbornness, the humble mule inspires a surprising amount of human love and devotion. Microkhan recently became acquainted with mule fandom via Western Mule Magazine, a publication that led him to discover Mule Days in Bishop, Calif. Held annually over Memorial Day Weekend, Mule Days is a true whopper of a hootenanny, which allows mule aficionados to congregate and feel secure in their oft-mocked affinity for (mostly) infertile donkey-horse hybrids:

There is

“Treasure Bath!”

We rarely get misty-eyed over the celebrity deaths, but yesterday’s passing of Dom DeLuise really got to us. That’s because he helped form our earliest impression of Ancient Roman decadence, with his turn as a gluttonous, Nero-like emperor in History of the World Part I. (Above; language slightly NSFW.) To this day, we can’t read about the Caesars exploits without envisioning Mr. DeLuise in all his porcine glory, requesting a “small lyre” and more wine as he moans over the loneliness of dictator

Oil Painting, Calisthenics, and Bombardment

In the course of researching the Now the Hell Will Start chapter that deals with wartime prostitution, we stumbled upon a great little artifact called Morale-Building Activities in Foreign Armies. It’s an illustrated 1943 pamphlet that delves into the various methods used by both Axis and Allies to pep up their troops’ spirits. And it makes fighting history’s most lethal war seem like attending Camp Pinewood.

The illustration at right, for example is captioned: “German soldiers who are artistical

Combating Corruption with Sandwiches

Indonesia regularly languishes near the bottom of Transparency International’s corruption index; in the 2008 rankings, the world’s fourth-most populous nation came in tied for 126th, alongside Honduras, Uganda, and Mozambique. With everyone’s hand out when foreign investors come knocking, it’s no wonder that major development deals fall through all the time.

So what’s to be done? One provincial governor has an intriguing grassroots idea:

In an effort to develop integrity among young people, the go

The Secret Lives of Bank Tellers

We’ve long been looking for an excuse to shout-out Fresh Produce, an eclectic podcast that airs semi-regularly from “an undisclosed location in South London.” Thankfully, their latest show gave us a killer hook: The strange career of Jamaican rocksteady legend Phyllis Dillon.

As recounted by Fresh Produce co-host Daddy Like, who spun Dillon’s fantastic “Don’t Stay Away,” the singer emigrated to New York City in the late 1960s; despite her widespread fame in Jamaica, Dillon never made more than f