The book's called Godel's Proof. It's just a little thing I picked up in the library -- copyright 1958, so I doubt anyone here's read it.

Also unsurprisingly, I get twitchy when arts get so dramatically bowdlerised.

Do you think Tai Chi's bowdlerised, then, or a bowdlerization in itself? My admittedly small amount of googling suggests that it's always been both martial art and exercise.

There are few martial arts that aren't exercise. However, I consider that a side effect. For most/many Eastern arts it's a fight/philosophy thing (it's hard to fight systematically without philosophy, I've come to learn). If you strip out the fight, you get a philosophy with hand gestures.

If you strip out the fight, you get a philosophy with hand gestures.

Jazz hands!

Sure it's not just foreign models?

Jehovah seemed pretty equal-opportunity with his automobile hate-on. Why are there no good "why did Jesus cross the road?" jokes springing to mind?

Jeff Barry (as I've noted before), the Archies honcho, wrote The Jefferson's theme. He had one of the cast members sing it too, I recall. Maybe the daughter of the mixed race couple?

This morning, I kept picturing the cast of Good Times, while listening to The Jefferson's theme, and wondering why. When I read your comment above, I wondered for a minute if Roxie Roker sang the Jefferson's theme (she played Helen Willis, the wife of the mixed race couple). I think she's Lenny Kravitz's mom.

Imdb indicates the Jefferson's theme was sung by Ja'net DuBois (who co-wrote it with Oren Waters). DuBois played Willona, the neighbor (and character who eventually adopted Janet Jackson's character Penny) on Good Times. Good Times spun off from Maude, which like The Jeffersons, spun off from All in the Family.

If you strip out the fight, you get a philosophy with hand gestures.

With attendant health benefits.

Cindy -- I'm not sure about the Tai Chi. I can't separate the martial out, but I'm sure they have woo-woo classes where they make it artsy and mysterious for people who have no tolerance for martial in their art.

I took tai chi for about a year up here and they really played down the martial stuff. It was all about meditation and movement and improving your health. I was pretty broke at the time and wanted to stick with it to learn sword forms, but I realized I was a long ways away.

If you strip out the fight, you get a philosophy with hand gestures.

They were selling it here as just healthy movement, although it was pretty obvious we were learning blocks and strikes in slow motion for good technique.

Jazz hands!

shouldn't be Philosophy hands!

That's the magic of Eastern philosophies - world peace and fewer headaches.

Thanks for the movie advice. Turns out I was wrong about the broad appeal to the group thing. They're still agonizing over what to see. I threw in the towel and said I'd see anything and put it off on them. Ha.

I tried Tai Chi via DVD and decided 1) I liked it, and 2) I'd be better off in a class with someone who could tell me whether I was even close to getting things right. I haven't looked for a class yet.