The How-To Guide for a severe groin pull

If you've seen the new James Bond movie Casino Royale, you know there is a supercool stunt scene at the beginning (de rigeur in Bond movies) where the guy Bond is chasing does all these crazy Jackie Chan kind of moves. When I watched it, Jackie Chan-like was the only description I could think of. As it turns out - sacrebleu! - there is a whole sport dedicated to this running-jumping-flipping-bouncing-rolling thing that most of us could only experience trying to get from the car to the house after a particularly jovial party.

It's called parkour, and you can read all about it here. Of course, it is only a matter of time until this new thing becomes much more well known, which will happen when some kid gets killed doing it. Wait, some kid already got killed. That didn't take long. That angle is here in a Time article. And you can find lots of videos on YouTube if you search for parkour.

I suggest you spend the remainder of the week watching these people do all these insane things. It might put a little spring in your step and thoughts in your mind next time you pass a fire escape or stairwell.

And in closing, let us salute France for being the birthplace of this diversion. Mon dieu, it's got to be the best thing the French have come up with since they invented laziness.

Comments

Anonymous said…
i'm a little confused about the title to this one...
April 11, 2007 at 1:43 PM
Barry Martin said…
Well, let's see. The item is about these guys running and jumping and flipping, and all the stuff they do is really cool looking, like it might be fun to try. So maybe a guy like me is walking down the street with his daughter and he says "hey, watch this" and he tries to go some cool trick he saw on You Tube, and whammo, severe groin pull.
April 11, 2007 at 9:10 PM
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