‘What’s Taki like?’ is a common response to my telling someone I’m a contributor to this magazine.
‘What’s Taki like?’ is a common response to my telling someone I’m a contributor to this magazine. People seem to think we regular contributors are jolly shipmates together, living out of hammocks in the hold. The prosaic truth is I’ve met Taki just twice, on each occasion at a Spectator party. The first time was on the steps at the old Doughty Street office while a mid-summer ‘At Home’ bash, measuring about a Force Nine on the Richter scale, was raging inside. Conscious of his career as an international black-belt karate champion, I bowed smartly and correctly, and shouted, ‘Oss, sensei!’ — which means, ‘I salute you, teacher!’
In my thirties, I trained with a Shotokan karate club and got up to the purple and white belt grade.
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