Fluid like water

Picture the scene: It's the end of a long day, full of opportunities missed, challenges not risen to, and coffee-breaks untaken. A string of half-baked ideas for second-rate blog entries have come and gone. Dewey Manor is deserted apart from one weary editor and the library's cat, Mr. Six-three-six Point-eight, mewling despondently under an enormous pile of balls of screwed-up paper. Time, thinks the ed., for a spot of free running! With one fluid bound, he leaps over the cat, through the window, down the drainpipe, past the Vicar, across the driveway, through the gate, over the road, and in the door of the cake shop. Onlookers marvel at the elegance of his uninterrupted forward motion. Hip urban freeflowers flip out at the hipness and urbanity of it all. Was that a dance move? An expert demonstration of a martial art? An extreme play in an extreme sport? Or just some guy eager to get to the cake shop before it closed? It was parkour, of course -- l'Art du Deplacement -- and similar feats of obstacle-coursing should be attempted only by experienced traceurs. Hailed by some as a "way of life," by others as a philosophy of physical movement, it is fairly common for parkour to be viewed as an extreme sport, and a work on parkour or free running that took that perspective would be classed at 796.046, under 796 Athletic and outdoor sports and games. Cake shops? 381.456647525.

Comments

[Gary Roma]

I have a website that lists all the known cats that live (or lived) in libraries around the world. Is Mr. Six-three-six Point-eight a real cat? Thanks.

Gary

[Gary Romaq]

It looks like the URL did not post above. Here it is:

http://www.ironfrog.com/catsmap.html