Flea, that bites.

Susan, most of our knife disarms depend on the cavalier, which is like what lisah describes. Imagine the hand as a fist, holding the knife. Hold the wrist with one hand below the joint and pull it towards you as you strike the back of the hand right at the knuckles. You end up bending the wrist and loosening the tendons (and causing pain) which usually gets the knife right out.

Another thing to consider is that if the knife fighter is experienced and not afraid, his grip on the knife will be fairly loose. It's not uncommon for a strong grab at the knife hand wrist or a strike that lands somewhere else to make the knifewielder drop the weapon, and that can easily send it skittering somewhere neither of them can go get it without putting themselves in danger.

Can't help you with the colour of death, though.

I need to know more.

Thanks, ita and lisah! That helps a lot.

The verdict is in for Jose Padilla and will be read at 2 p.m. Eastern today.

That was fast. Meanwhile, I am procrastinating like whoa, and happened upon the best kerfuffle summary in the history of the universe:

The voices in my head told me to do it. Also, it wasn't me because I was drunk/in the hospital/touring with Van Halen at the time. Then, the Earth cooled. Also, they're not sockpuppets, I just wear them on my feet when they're cold.

(From the comment thread on the most recent F_W post, for those who are into such things.)

Awesome!

For Liese especially -- Dark Roasted Blend did a feature about the Micro Cars, including the model I think she was interested in buying (the mini-pickup!):

Ooh, ooh! Thank you so much for that link, Theo! That was a fascinating photo series. I had no idea there were that many micro cars through history! Some of them were superfantabulous.

That little Vespatruck I was looking at is gone! Woe! Someone must have bought it; someone who dithers less than I do. But it was so cute! I dunno if the SO would have fit into it at 6'1", but it would have been great to be able to haul stuff around from the home supply store to the build site, etc. I'm pretty sure that one was listed as being street legal. Less sure that a semi driver could see it over his dash! Heh.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DEBET!!!!

flea, that sucks about the job. I'm sorry.

FSF with katefate and Suzi!!! Whee!!! But....

Would LOVE to, but meeting for October 1 has just been set. Feh.

JULIANA SMASH.

Remember when I was bitching about the NY Times and their "a"'s problem?

Ta-da!

Of course, as “bon bon” at the Buffistas.org discussion board has pointed out, the best way to solve this problem is to take away the plural: He was scolded for his stubborn insistence on drawing a two-tiered lowercase “a.”

That's hilarious. Hi, Grant!

I just took a look at the weather and traffic around here. I'm going to have a hell of a time getting home tonight.

[link]

It looks like all those !!! are near our office in Houston. I should tell Big Boss Lady so she can call to check on them.

Good luck Dana, and be careful out there!