Indigenous Ability

  First, a 17 th to 18 th Century Nautical Expression “ Hard Up in a Clinch and No Knife to Cut the Siezing!” When wind is high and a but fluky [subject to hard to read shifts] a sailing vessel could wind up “ sailing by the lee .” Yes, more jargon, but stay with me—sailing by the lee was essentially having all sails and rigging set for an opposite tack or jibe. The fluky wind, particularly if high enough will pin yards of canvas and rigging in dangerously precarious fashion. The psi on a single yard of sail is amazingly powerful and productive when set right, and devastatingly destructive when set wrong. Poorly set sails and rigging, or sails caught by fluke can unstep masts [break them], render rigging and running lines so taut they can no longer be handled [bad news as this is your sail control—essentially your brake and gas pedals], and if not addressed can knockdown or turtle the vessel [breach her to beam or capsize.] Needless to say, these are all very very bad...

  Below you will find a few choice references to battle-axes from the sagas interspersed with a bit of bite-swinging lore. “ A manly attack, that!” —[Spoken by Kari Solmundarson after Skarphedin Njasson kills Thrain Sigfusson with an axe strike to the jaw.] Njal’s Saga , Ch.92 A favored weapon of what is called the Viking warrior tradition, we also find its influence bleeding into the early Pict and Scots where for a while it was a weapon of preference—likely heavily influenced by the Viking influx in the region. “ Now just for fun we’ll each name what we place our trust in. I’ll choose first, and there are three things I place reliance on---one is my purse, the second my axe, the third my storehouse .”—Spoken by Glum in Killer Glum’s Saga , Ch. 14 We also find the indigenous peoples of the Americas using axes [tomahawk has become the catch-all term] both small hand-axes and, also in some cases, larger two-handers more reminiscent of what we see in the aforementioned cultur...

  [From the introduction to The Suakhet’u Program: Opening the Sensorium , scheduled for release this Fall to Black Box Subscribers .] Pop Quiz Question One -When is the last time you deliberately viewed a sunrise? Question Two -When is the last time you deliberately viewed a sunset? Question Three : When is the last time you viewed a sunrise and a sunset on the same day? Of course, this is self-scored. Few get more than 2 correct answers. If we ask a fourth questions… “ Were you on vacation when you viewed of both?” usually garners an affirmative response, which begs a fifth question… “If a vacation, presumably a retreat to renew, recharge and reinvigorate the self leads one to deliberately view such an event, are we not displaying behavioral evidence that we recognize the importance of being a part of this daily life-giving display?” We will now side-step the exhaustive science and lore that points to the integral importance of the Sun as THE life-giver on this G...

  [Allow the Old Man a little preamble then I’ll get out of the way and turn it over to men of higher wisdom.] Why Mark Learned to Sail In the course of my Old School Rough ‘n’ Tumble studies I come across many landed iterations of violence but almost equally as many references to throwing hands and wielding weapon at sea, on keelboats, riverboat melees, canoe exploits, piratical tactics etc. My idiosyncratic way states that one might better understand how and why something was done if one did not simply excise the targeted aspect [the combat portion in our case] of the old school life but experimented with as much of the milieu that the tactic arose in. My tomahawk work is immeasurable informed by woodcraft skills and avid lumberjacking. My leg wrestling is subtly improved by Comanche bareback riding. Hell, even my outdoor cookery improves if I toss the gas-grill and go all cast iron and old school. [For more on the vital importance of Combat Milieu You, the Explorer ...

  [ A Society for Savage Gentlemen & Feral Ladies offering .] A Society or Association of any sort, be it a Monday Morning Book Club, an “in-the trenches” Band of Brothers, or a 1%er motorcycle club works best when there are clear boundaries that set limits for behavior and visible goals that allows the group to coalesce around or toward. Boundaries are there to define the affiliation. If our Monday Morning Book club has decided that we will read nothing but the elegant and well-researched Regency Romances of Georgette Heyer, but Caroline keeps suggesting Stephen King’s “ Dark Tower ” series, well, Caroline is in the wrong club. Visible goals are there to ensure that action/doings are integral. If there is no goal and no action towards a goal, then the association is meaningless. A book club that does not read is not a book club, a chapter of the Mongols that does not plan a ride is just a buncha guys sitting around in a bar. Boundaries define the group as it is now,...

  First, One of Mark’s Kidnapping Quizzes ·         So you’ve been kidnapped and imprisoned. ·         Edmond Dante style you’ve been kept in a castle keep [or Alcatraz] and the main obstacle to your escape will be a long swim that kills most all who make the attempt. ·         You’ll need the best conditions to chance this swim as most don’t make it. ·         Using the primary clue in this photograph of one my moonlight river-swims, would it be best to make this survival swim tonight or wait a few days? ·         We will assume similar weather conditions as we see here so add no additional factors beyond what we see from the clues depicted. ·         Answer with your current knowledge, there is no Googling in Alcatraz or Dumas’ The Man in the Iron Mask . · ...

  One-I address Old Schoolers Only ·         That is, my advice does not apply to anyone using pharmaceuticals of any form. ·         A -I do not use them for historical veracity. If PEDs were not around for the early expositor of advice I do not want to diffuse, complicate or render irrelevant the information by adding this ahistorical factor. ·         B -PEDs enable the organism to recover more quickly and other less than natural training curve effects. Those using aids/PEDs/cheats whatever you want to call them should consult their Bro-Pharmacist adviser and skip the Old School Way—methods differ for the drug contraindicated. Two-You are likely working too long. ·         Marathon training sessions are out. ·         And by marathon, here we mean lengthy training sessions not the 26.2 mile run,...