Honorverse ramblings and musings

ldwechsler wrote:

saber964 wrote:IIRC Young was not much into working out or keeping in any kind of shape. He is described as having a beard to hide his double chin and skillful tailoring to hide his thickening middle. Remember dear old dad was described has morbidly obese and suffering the effects of a lifetime of excess and self abuse.

He was the kind of man who had to feel superior. He probably cared fairly little about how high his grades were at the Academy since connections always won out.

Honor Harrington already had quite a record before getting her ship for Basilisk Station. He was higher ranking and had done nothing.

Why take part in sports where you would be defeated often? My guess is that he participated in things like that as little as possible. It was far more satisfying to sit back with buddies who kissed his behind and talk about his upcoming career.

cthia wrote:

cthia" quote="Duckk wrote:...What? Fencing is an incredibly demanding sport physically. I know 4 people who have all participated in fencing, and they talk all the time about conditioning. We've even had jokes about how toned their legs are, and how muscular their sword arm is compared to their other arm.

cthia wrote:My apology Duckk, you are absolutely correct.

I might have erroneously mistaken Rajani's reference to mean "dangerous." In the Pavel Young sense.

"The more physical sports" as in the "contact sports" sense. You are highly unlikely to incur a broken femur, broken back, broken ankle, broken arm, dislocated shoulder, hyper extended knee or plain old death from a broken neck, from fencing.

I don't recall ever meeting anyone who were afraid of the pain of conditioning. No pain, no gain.

PeterZ wrote:I had a NCAA sectional bout against the Air Force Academy back in the day. I forgot to snap my vest tightly. My opponent and I attacked at the same time. His epee missed the center of my throat by half a inch. My collar was open just enough and he got in just under my facemask. Had a scar along my neck as a result. Had that epee hit center, my trachea would have been crushed.

Freak coincidence sure, but Honorable A$$hole Young is right to be leery.

As for conditioning, my left thigh was too big to fit comfortably in most jeans all through college. The forearms was also a bit of a lopsided Popeye. It was sort of odd at the beach when one leg had most of the hair rubbed off and the other was more normal.

cthia wrote:Peter, thanks for the interesting story, and the fact that you have fencing skills!

I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that one can die from simply walking, if one is careless. As many are finding out the hard way, walking while texting.

****** *

Something I forgot to bring up. Is the Mess dress sword simply decoration? I always wondered if everyone actually had to know how to use it. Akin to the army bayonets.

saber964 wrote:Yes, the mess dress sword is for show. Except for the Harrington sword which was the Burdett sword until he lost his head both figuratively and literally.

Rajani Isa wrote:

cthia wrote:I would more than half-ass expect Pavel Young to have participated in the sport, being the quintessential well bred aristocrat that he was so fond of pointing out. But he trips over his own sword.

In... Field of Dishonor I think it is (or maybe Short Victorious War) they kind of address this. They mentioned how even in the Academy Young avoided the more physical sports.

cthia wrote:Mentioning that Young avoided "the more physical sports" implies that he took part in some sports, or a sport. Which was???

Weird Harold wrote:

cthia wrote:Mentioning that Young avoided "the more physical sports" implies that he took part in some sports, or a sport. Which was???

Something like Golf or Darts -- a sport where a beer stein or wine glass is almost mandatory?

The E wrote:You're assuming that people 2 millennia in the future will have the same connotations with "aristocracy" that you have, when it has been established that the manticoran concept of dueling has started with firearms, not evolved to use firearms instead of swords. A manticoran noble house is far more likely to own a set of dueling pistols (and maybe train in their use) than they are to own a set of dueling swords, IMHO.

George J. Smith wrote:I wonder what the 3 S's (Sonja, Sharon & Simoes) will come up with at Bolthole?

cthia wrote:Mentioning that Young avoided "the more physical sports" implies that he took part in some sports, or a sport. Which was???

That implication, and the fact that he is the quintessential well-bred aristocrat, made me expect him to have studied fencing, again, since Manticore is the product of an aristocratic society.

Please don't anyone say equestrianism, because he liked riding gawking horses. LOL