busker

Gosh I'd love to pretend I derring-did this in my agile "youf" but there are too many out there who know da troof.

But between my crazy Asian days, louche Parisianizing, and south London gallivanting, I mixed with nutters who defied gravity, sanity and every other -ity that keeps the rest of us from hari-kareering off this mortal coil before our allotted time.

Imagine saying phooey to boring old buildings or fences or height or whatever and you're just going to jump, scale, and sprint yer way to wherever you're going, that's Le Parkour, or Urban Freeflow in the pedestrian anglais.

Invented by fou Frenchies Daveed Belle and Sébastien Foucan, it's *the* ultimate urban sport that asks all the skills of skate boarding, martial arts, and total athleticism for le traceur to move from A to B (Ah to Ber?) sans stopping, sans fear.

There are - or were - basic disciplines (rather like katas or drill mouvements) that taught rolling, landing, somersaulting etc, many of which have their own names - 'tic tac', the 'cat leap', 'monkey vault'.

When I once expressed horreur and concern to my an expert pal, he curled a lip de contempt and complained that, already, it was being watered down and formalised and "ruined". Lol: even such an anarchic philosophy for life was getting hidebound and a renegade offshoot sprouting.

For those interested, here're the Cliffs Notes on its genesis.

I mention it because out of the bleu, a pals has written asking about America's - more to the point, Seattle's - readiness for an invasion and introduction.

I've replied that we in Bainbridge are certainly ready for fast-flitting figures to dart across our skyline, starting with leaps from the ferry as it docks (no need wait for any boring gangplank to descend) to hopping from one Peddy poster to another - dis-donc! a strapping young lad could traverse le tout Pont de Bain just swinging from one Peddy point to another.

To boot, in line with our current anti-Français mood, each missed grip and splat of bod on boardwalk would be greeted with all-American "Yess!", so what a bonus to taunt us with their death-defying prowess.

Check it out: it's quite a phenomenon.