The miyagi Pat Morita

I realize that Pat Morita's death last Thursday is pretty old news now, but I want to say something about it anyway.
My brothers and I were huge fans of Pat Morita's Mr. Miyaga character in the Karate Kid films. From "wax on, wax off," to the bonsai tree, to the whole catching a fly with chopsticks shtick, who can forget the wisdom that Miyagi imparted to Daniel-san as well as to everyone else who grew up in the 80s?
After watching The Karate Kid, Part II, my brothers and I decided that Mr. Miyagi was the epitome of cool and tried to incorporate his name into the youth vernacular. So, for a couple of weeks, we replaced "cool" with "miyagi," thinking that we were on the verge of bringing about change to language. We imagined that the trend of saying "miyagi" instead of "cool" would spread across the continents in a matter of months and we could rightly shrug and say "Yah, we did that.". We even came up with a formula to determine how long it would take before "miyagi" replaced "cool."
While the masses never quite warmed to "miyagi" as an adjective, Pat Morita's iconic portrayal of the martial arts guru will stay with us forever.

A BLAST FROM THE PAST: The Nerddd at 10

It's the summer of 1990 and the Nerddd and her older brother are arguing over something silly, like the the remote control or credit for making "miyagi" synonymous for "cool" (it caught on in the Nerddd's household, anyway...ahem) in the '80s or inventing Khanjitsu (a brand of martial arts incorporating household items like throw cushions and spatulas; our Nerddd is no longer too proud to admit that her brother was the genius behind the discipline).

The Nerddd grumbles. She hurls out her grievances for anyone---including her brother, who's already, rather obliviously, watching television---who will listen. She stomps her feet and turns red with rage. "But, I want [the remote control; credit for coining the word "miyagi"; inventing Khanjitsu]," she rages. But her brother isn't listening, so to get his attention she finally resorts to calling out, "Ammmmmmmmmmaaaaaaaaa!"

Our Nerddd's brother turns to look at what all the fuss is about. He's still, very clearly, uninterested in anything his little sister has to say because, as far as he's concerned, he was born having won this argument. Of course, this further angers the Nerddd and so she gives into her fury and flips him the bird.

The result however, of the flipped bird, is not the one she'd desired, for her brother dissolves into laughter. And although she wants to ask, "What? What?!" (because, frankly, she's confused), she shakes her hand and adds a "Take that!" for emphasis, hoping that that will do the trick but it only makes her brother laugh harder. So, she remains standing with the bird flipped, uttering exclamations as she struggles to make him take her seriously.

Her brother finally asks between laughs, "What the hell are you doing?"

"I don't know," the Nerddd replies, now very unsure of herself. "Showing you the finger. Why?"

"Oh no, nothing," her brother says, returning to the television.

"Tell me," she demands, her finger still raised up in the air.

"Nothing," he repeats and suddenly serious, he adds, "that's not a nice thing to do, Sabila."

The Nerddd folds down her pinky finger, brings her hand down to her side and concedes defeat.