Frankenheimer is all over the map, but Ronin (1998), French Connection II (1975), and the non-horrible parts of Grand Prix (1966) have that euro feel.

-- BenCalvin - 12 Dec 2006

oh yeah....you're right about the karate chop

Jackal is amazing

I need to watch it start to finish

we tuned in midway and I was distracted - doing math, I think - even then it was riveting ...

-- CatherineJohnson - 09 Dec 2006

Frankenheimer.....

really?

I'm going to have to go back and take a look (at Frankenheimer, I mean....)

It really was incredible.

I didn't even mind the length.

-- CatherineJohnson - 09 Dec 2006

http://www.imdb.com/gallery/ss/0068767/086162612138_z_chiniccu.jpg.html?path=pgallery&path_key=Lee,%20Bruce%20(I)&seq=4

BTW This guy killed the Karate Chop. As soon as one saw more realistic martial arts the James T Kirk style was past it's sell by date:

Really liked the Bond movie. Very Frankenheimer-like.

Day of the Jackal has been on my list to see for some time.

-- BenCalvin - 06 Dec 2006

We saw THE DAY OF THE JACKAL this weekend.

Along with JAMES BOND.

That's probably why I collapsed with the flu on Sunday.

-- CatherineJohnson - 05 Dec 2006

LOL

-- CatherineJohnson - 18 Oct 2005

That sounds more like a pharmacology course.

A really good pharmacology course.

-- DougSundseth - 18 Oct 2005

Dan K

My Physics class was so good that I am no longer affected by gravity...

Wow.

That's a good course.

-- CatherineJohnson - 18 Oct 2005

Yes, and Messrs Larson, Boswell and Stiff certainly help kids get geometry over with as fast as they can. Very few proofs, no discernible logical sequence, analytic mixed in with synthetic geometry with no regard to where analytic geom. comes from (try the Pythagorean theorem for starters, guys). In fairness to these bozos, (not that I'm compelled to be fair to them), publishers put a lot of that stuff in independent of authors, as I indicated in another thread. A little known fact is that authors have very little control over their books once the publisher agrees to publish it. But in the case of this book, the ridiculous multi-cultural blurbs seem to fit right in with what they seem to be caling geometry.

-- BarryGarelick - 18 Oct 2005

Barry:

"It features a young African-American female fashion designer. (The "right" gender, race and cool profession). They include an interview with this young woman in which she is asked about the math she took in school. She replies that because her high school math was strong—all the way through calculus — “I didn’t need to take more in college” What is the message supposed to be here?"

The message is that it's assumed, understood, that you get math over with as quickly as you can, and don't look back. That you don't let it beat you, but it's beyond the pale that you would go on with it, because noone expects that you will like it.

The dirty secret is that a lot of educators who don't explicitly love math, and want to teach it specifically, actually hate math. Contrast it with this statement:

"A lot of teachers who don't explicitly teach reading actually hate reading."

Sounds ridiculous, right? And yet the same statement made about math... doesn't.

-- CarolynJohnston - 18 Oct 2005

My Physics class was so good that I am no longer affected by gravity...

-- DanK - 18 Oct 2005

My English lit course was so good I didn't have to read any more books in college.

-- CatherineJohnson - 18 Oct 2005

Yeah, I mean 'I didn't need to take more math in college.'

I find that an astonishing thing to print IN A MATH TEXTBOOK.

-- CatherineJohnson - 18 Oct 2005

Catherine:

Not sure what your question means: "This is in the textbook?"

What is in the textbook is "I didn't need to take more in college".

I added: What is the message here?

That is not in the textbook. I was just asking. Rhetorically.

-- BarryGarelick - 17 Oct 2005

I just got back from teaching my first Singapore Math class.

The kids loathe TRAILBLAZERS. They spontaneously told me this; I wasn't fishing for opinions.

They kept saying, 'They made us write letters to ants! We don't care about ants! Kids don't care about ants!'

Apparently there's some unit on an ant city; something like that.

One of those Real World connections.

-- CatherineJohnson - 17 Oct 2005

I speak to Mr. Larson and Stiff everyday (and not in a nice way) since they are two of the three authors of this Heath Algebra I book we have been enduring for the last couple of months. It also has "Career Interviews" every so often in between the calculator lessons and various charts and graphs. These guy's personal stories of how they use (or don't use) math take up a solid third of the page.

More fodder for wit and wisdom!

-- CatherineJohnson - 17 Oct 2005

Wait.

That's Edward Fox.

Not James.

-- CatherineJohnson - 17 Oct 2005

The "gangsta pull" reminds me of watching '30s and '40s westerns. Back then most of the actors seemed to think that firing a handgun required a wrist snap, pulling the trigger at the bottom of the snap.

The wrist flip!

That's RIGHT!

-- CatherineJohnson - 17 Oct 2005

She replies that because her high school math was strong—all the way through calculus—“I didn’t need to take more in college” What is the message supposed to be here?

This is in the textbook?

-- CatherineJohnson - 17 Oct 2005

Susan,

Yes, I've seen their algebra book as well. I tutored a student who was afflicted with the book. FYI, Lee Stiff is a former president of NCTM. I say he needs a good combination judo/karate chop.

Hey, since we've talked about Judo and Karate, what about Jiu Jitsu?

-- BarryGarelick - 17 Oct 2005

Or the Judo "flip," often used by the lovely Diana Rigg against big, angry men in "The Avengers."

You people are showing your age. Of course, I've only heard of Kung Fu Fighting from some commercial. (heh)

Barry,

I speak to Mr. Larson and Stiff everyday (and not in a nice way) since they are two of the three authors of this Heath Algebra I book we have been enduring for the last couple of months. It also has "Career Interviews" every so often in between the calculator lessons and various charts and graphs. These guy's personal stories of how they use (or don't use) math take up a solid third of the page.

It takes serious concentration skills to read the Heath Algebra 1 book.

-- SusanS - 17 Oct 2005

While the karate chop was a '60s-'70s cliche, earlier it was the "judo chop". It is not important that judo doesn't teach anything that could be described as a chop; it was a judo chop.

I suspect this was an artifact of people knowing that the IJA (Imperial Japanese Army - WWII Japan) taught unarmed combat, and that judo was a form of Japanese unarmed combat. With the dramatic rise in the popularity both of martial arts movies and general unarmed combat training, both the karate and "judo" chops were seen as too silly.

The "gangsta pull" reminds me of watching '30s and '40s westerns. Back then most of the actors seemed to think that firing a handgun required a wrist snap, pulling the trigger at the bottom of the snap. It seems pretty clear to me that they'd never actually tried to hit anything with that technique.

-- DougSundseth - 17 Oct 2005

Yes, I love the song Kung-Fu Fighting. Hey, well I hate to break up a discussion about karate chops and Kung Fu by bringing up math, but I was on another thread, looked something up, was going to report on it, got distracted by karate chops and Star Trek, but I have some info.

I was looking at the discussion about boys and girls in Trailblazers and what publishers are actually doing when they have such stereotypes. I looked up in the dreadful text "Geometry: An Integrated Approach" by Larson, Boswell STiff, a multi-cultural blurb. It features a young African-American female fashion designer. (The "right" gender, race and cool profession). They include an interview with this young woman in which she is asked about the math she took in school. She replies that because her high school math was strong—all the way through calculus—“I didn’t need to take more in college” What is the message supposed to be here? Could this amount of space have been used for another purpose; say for a proof of a theorem that the authors decided to state as a postulate? That would probably do more for the under-represented population they are trying to mollify.

"Spock, Bones!"

-- BarryGarelick - 17 Oct 2005

or

the song " Kung-Fu Fighting "

-- KDeRosa - 17 Oct 2005

Does anyone remember Hai Karate? I think I had a bottle of it growing up. If you wore the cologne, you had to fight the women off. It didn't work.

Hai Karate Promo

http://www.wfmu.org/MACrec/haikarate.html

-- SteveH - 17 Oct 2005

"he was always karate-chopping folks"

I rest my case.

-- CarolynJohnston - 17 Oct 2005

it's true

he was always karate-chopping folks

-- CatherineJohnson - 17 Oct 2005

While Spock used his Vulcan nerve pinch, Kirk was using his karate chop to disable bad guys.

-- KDeRosa - 17 Oct 2005

Kung fu

I'm getting out of my depth

-- CatherineJohnson - 17 Oct 2005

OH!

I barely even remember James T. Kirk using the karate chop.

Those memories are all crowded out by vivid images of Spock doing his shoulder-pinch thingie.

-- CatherineJohnson - 17 Oct 2005

good grief

gangsta

I was NEVER going to think of that

-- CatherineJohnson - 17 Oct 2005

I used the variant "gangsta" keyword with "gun." and Googled this on google images.

The great man's name was besmirched right here: "The 1960s Karate Chop was used by both good guys and bad guys; ... and James T. Kirk used it to excess."

The horror. Kirk had some of the most lethal karate chops in filmdom thank you very much.

-- KDeRosa - 17 Oct 2005

My place on the real time line is at Kung Fu fighting.

-- BarryGarelick - 17 Oct 2005

Did I miss this?

-- CatherineJohnson - 17 Oct 2005

Did someone speak ill of James T. Kirk?

-- CatherineJohnson - 17 Oct 2005

OK, now I am seriously turning over my job to KDeRosa.

How on earth did you find those photos????

I looked all over the place.

-- CatherineJohnson - 17 Oct 2005

Khaaaan!

-- KDeRosa - 17 Oct 2005