Re: Weebles - No joke at all

[clutter <clutter@cyberspace.org>]

Poster: clutter <clutter@cyberspace.org>


> Poster: "Terry L. Neill" <Neilltl@ptsc.slg.eds.com>
> 
> I've no idea why Crowns are so small here.  I've heard things ranging from "Too
> Expensive" to "Not enough Time" to "Only the Really Good fighters should enter"
> to "Weebling".
> New Thread alert.
>         - Anarra
> 
> I use the term weeble because it doesn't have the machismo associated with the
> term rhino-hide.
> Since I don't consider weebling to be macho behavior I try to avoid a (what I
> consider to be) macho term for it.
> I have far more respect for a fighter who fights well and honorably and 'loses'
> than for one who 'wins' a tournament dishonorably.
> Winning dishonorably.  Now *there's* an oxymoron for you.
> Thanks for further explaining, Herveus.
>         - Anarra
> 
> On Fri, 4 Apr 1997, teufel wrote:
> 
> >         A new joke for your consideration:
> > 
> >                 How do you keep a candle from being blown out?
> > 
> >                 Put a white belt around it. The candle will turn it's back
> > and refuse the blow.
> >         
> >         Sorry!  (ducking and running before the peerage can lynch him.) ;}
> 
You know, the pathetic thing about this joke is that people in other
kingdoms don't immediately get it.  ("how can you refuse a blow by turning
your back?")  I don't suppose anyone would want to discuss the subculture
of deceit amongst fighters in Atlantia - all the tricks (averting eyes,
flicking your head to the side to hide the distance the blow would have
knocked your head) and excuse catchphrases (bad geometry, too high on the
helm, you weren't in his armor).  It is taboo for a mashal to mention when
a blow was obviously and embarrassingly good, but marshals will often
falsely call blows flat in order to deal with an out-of-control and-or
out-of-favor cheat.  We can't jeopardize the weebling of our honored sons,
so we use a different deceit to deal with those who are unpopular or
completely over the top. 
  
There is a complete Emperor's Clothes subculture of how to cheat and who
to cheat in Atlantia, and those who don't play this game have little or no
chance of ever taking crown.  "Weebling" barely begins to describe the
problem.  I'm betting that too many dukes owe their strawberry leaves and
too many knights their belts to this for it to be honestly discussed. 
I've never heard a sincere defense of this beyond "oh, he only rhinos when
the others do" or "just think of it as knights and dukes having higher hit
points". No one *privately* has ever said that I'm wrong or imagining
this.  At most, they just mumble a weak excuse and try to change the
subject, afraid of saying anything controversial.  The entire kingdom's
honor is corrupted by this, perhaps irrevocably.  Perhaps an honest
discussion would inspire the Moose Lodge to take up the banner - until all
its members launch a crusade to eliminate deceit, no one else will. 

 						Clutter

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