Scary snowman in Harvard Sq. terrifies the locals. Brilliant stuff.

[IrishAyes]

25. Lots of food for thought there.

HappySlug's comments call to mind a puzzling thing that happened in my own life. I was living way out in the sticks after spending quite a few years in L.A., during which time I'd studied martial arts quite a bit. But at this point I only had one dog and he was at the vet's recuperating after an operation. So I rounded the corner of the house and got surprised by a neighbor I hadn't heard arrive. It startled me so that I jumped backwards, and for some strange reason instinctively adopted a Japanese defensive posture. Never could figure out why, because what I'd studied was Tae Kwon Do (Korean).

My neighbor, who'd only walked over to borrow the traditional cup of sugar, was as startled as I was. She thought I was going to strike her. But I can tell you that only once in my life did I ever have the urge to deliberately hit anyone outside the ring or dojo. Any degree of self protection training has a tendency to make people more peaceable because they're more in control of themselves and at least feel more secure in their surroundings.

Funny; one time in L.A. I answered the door to find a very non-threatening LEO standing there. He was on some mundane community errand or other, can't remember what. But I was new to the neighborhood, and he was awfully handsome, so naturally we got talking. Pretty soon he asked me if I was into martial arts and I wondered, totally surprised, what led him to ask such a question. (I dressed very girly at that age.) He told me he'd noticed that every time he changed his position in the least, so did I, in a way that optimized my ability to strike if necessary.

I said, "Damn - does it show that much?" wondering what kind of weirdo I'd turned into.

He said, "No. It wouldn't be noticeable at all to most people."

We were both single and went on a few dates, but you can guess what made the situation untenable - politics.