Wednesday, November 11, 2009

History lesson: The Hi-Five

No, this is not a SuperCraig post. I hear a few of you disappointed, but most of you are happy! Today is a history lesson, read on to find out more:

We have all done it at some point of time. Most of us still do it. I am talking about the hi-five or more commonly known as the high five. We do it when we agree with someone, crack a good joke, (or a bad one) at work, at home, while playing sports; the hi-five has made its way deviously into our everyday lives.


Has anyone ever wondered how this global phenomenon started in the first place? Here’s what happened…I think. We take a look back (way back) to the time the first organism was formed. You must be thinking that there were no humans at the time. Well, you are right. But evidence found suggests that unicellular organisms like amoeba, even before figuring out they could split to multiply, hi-fived each other. Of course, it was not called a hi-five at that time. In fact, it had no name! We are talking about unicellular organisms, remember? But anyway, in today’s time, we don’t refer to it as a hi-five, but just a ‘high’.



The hi-five, then disappeared from the face of the earth, but only for a few hundred million years. We fast forward to the prehistoric times where early man were just forming societies, making new friends and asking out the opposite sex to a cup of coffee since splitting a person into two didn’t seem to work now! Getting back to the topic, the hi-five at that time wasn’t the hi-five we all know and love now. Back then, the hi-five was used to check whose hands and fingers were longer. However, since there was no soap back then, germs spread quickly through the constant hand contact, causing catastrophic diseases like gooey substances from the nose, rashes and dirty hands. The hi-five went on yet another break. Prehistoric men then started trying to see which one if their hands were bigger and started hi-fiving themselves. This is when the clap (or the self-five) was introduced into the human society. But that’s another story for another day.

So getting back to the topic…again, as man evolved he started inventing stuff. However, the first hi-five that paved the way for hi-fives to be used as it is today was after the invention of the wheel. Yes-sir-ee! The hi-five that we all know and love today has a round piece of stone with a hole in the middle to thank.

Since then the popularity of the hi-five has grown many fold (Figure 1). However, groups of people started playing around with the hi-five for no apparent reason. Why would you mess with something so perfect? Today, we see many variations of the hi-five like: the double handed hi-five (hi-ten), the low-five, the double handed low-five (low-ten), behind the back, across the chest, etc. the list goes on. But even with these adaptations, the hi-five remains the most used.


Figure 1: Popularity of the Hi-Five



The hi-fives have been doing a lot of advertising as well. In recent times popular TV show How I Met Your Mother makes a lot of references to the hi-five. Borat too, in his movie ‘Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan’ make a lot of use of the hi-five, sometimes even forcefully asking for one.

With the way the hi-five is gaining popularity, who knows, it may one day become today’s handshake.



For those of you who don’t know how to hi-five here are a few simple steps to follow:

  1. Locate a potential hi-fiver.
  2. Approach with a good joke or a simple ‘Hey! What’s up?’
  3. Lift arm in a way that your palm faces target hi-fiver.
  4. Wait for target hi-fiver to do the same.
  5. Swing arm forward in such a way, that your palm lines up with the targets.
  6. Make sure you make firm contact with the targets palm, or you will look pretty silly and everyone will know its your first time.

Tips for a good hi-five:

  1. Keep constant eye contact.
  2. Do not put too much force in the swing. We don’t want to hurt people.
  3. Do it with good intent, not just to look cool.

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Pretty damsel and the chocolate moment!

I never thought that day would ever come. The secret villain organisation known only as ASS (Association of Sneaky Scoundrels) had figured out what I thought was the best way to cause destruction and mayhem among the unsuspecting citizens. The one thing that no one could ever resist. DONUTS! I mean come on, they are round, and topped or filled with flavours, one better than the other. Eat them cold, warm, dunk them in your coffee, for breakfast, lunch or dinner, there’s nothing like it. So what’s the relation between ASS and donuts? Well firstly, if you eat too many of them, yours is bound to get big.

The villain organisation, ASS had gone out poisoning all the donuts with some weird gas they only knew as FART (Fatal Aroma Raising-hell Technique). This gas, as disgusting as it sounds, was a hundred times more disgusting than that. Our scientists at the labs (those who were fortunate enough to survive) tell us that the gas starts off smelling fragrant and inviting. But after a certain amount of time, turns into the most foul smelling disgustingly obnoxious green gas. This gas, when inhaled even in the slightest concentrations could cause people to make faces, point fingers to each other or even close their noses with their fingers. Ok enough of this science mumbo jumbo.

Getting back to the day, I woke up and thought, what better way to start the day than with a donut (or two…may be even four)? So off I went to the store, 30 minutes before it even opened. Thirty minutes later, I was not the only person outside the shop. The shutters finally opened and the sweet smell of freshly made donuts made everyone weak in the knees.

Everyone rushed in leaving me at the back of the lineL. But it was alright. I knew I was going to get some sweet donuts at the end of it. Patiently waiting my turn I looked towards the counter. I tell you my friends. It was at that moment I fell in love. The girl in front of me started yelling, “New flavour! New flavour!” “What? When? Why?” I thought. I looked over her shoulder and there I saw it. Triple Trouble was its name. Chocolate on top, in the middle and under the donut! Pure genius! (Let me remind you of the laws of Donuts. Law 1: You can never have too much chocolate on your donut.)

But by the time I reached the counter, they were all gone. But the girl in front of me the kindest soul offered me one. She bought one and got one free! While biting into the donut, I noticed a funky smell around. Gulping down the rest of it I looked around and saw people closing their noses, pointing blame on each other for the horrible smell.

This had FART gas written all over it. Luckily I carry my anti-FART spray, which I carry in my pocket. You never know when you will need it. I sprayed the entire area with it and every thing was back to normal. But what about the rest of the FART filled donuts? Well I ate them. They smell bad but still taste awesome! (Yes all of them!)

Ahh, after that awesome breakfast, I decided to walk back to the liar. Obviously coz I could not fly with all the donuts I had just eaten. Just then, my super hearing told me someone was in danger. And right enough, a few meters away was a damsel in distress yelling out for help. At once, I knew it was the same kind soul who gave me her donut. I knew it from the chocolate drenched clothes. (The triple trouble was so filled with chocolate that it was humanly impossible to eat it without getting chocolate on your clothes)

Something told me there was some problem with her chappal. May be it was a broken strap or heel. “You are so smart. How did you know it was my chappal? And how did you know it was a broken strap?” she said. With a smile on my face I replied, “No one would stand in the middle of the road with their chappal in their hand shouting for help.”

“You truly are super, SuperCraig!”, she said. But I was not going to let this damsel suffer anymore. I would have carried her and flown her to her destination. But as you recall I had more than a tummy full of donuts. With some quick thinking I managed to craft out a chappal from the left over tissues from the donut place. But a few steps later I needed to fix that as well. Something told me I needed to quick fix the original chappal…but how?! I decided to look into my utility belt. (If batman can have one, so can I)

Paper clip, safety pin, chappal strap…. Just then it hit me. I could make something out of the paper clip and the safety pin. A twist of the wire here, and the bend of a wire there. And voila! A contraption to poke holes in her foot! Ohh wait! What if I used the safety pin to hold the strap to the chappal? Genius I thought to myself! Poke of the pin there, poke of the pin there, puncture in the thumb and voila again! The chappal was a good as new.

Another day saved thanks to SuperCraig!

This is SuperCraig signing out, reminding you to always dot your ‘I’s and cross your ‘t’s!