Monday, December 03, 2007

Staten Island Ninja


For the past seven months, a "ninja" has been creeping into the homes of Staten Island residents and absconding with their valuables. (For those unfamiliar with New York City, Staten Island is the island borough just south of Manhattan.) The few people who've seen the ninja say he (or she!) dresses in black from head to toe, conceals his face with a black mask, and never utters a word. When confronted, the ninja simply whips out his nunchucks and makes a daring escape. He's also been spotted "scaling walls and leaping noiselessly out windows."

According to this story in The New Yorker, the Staten Island ninja appears to schedule many of his capers for Wednesday evenings. (Good to know. I think I'll save my visits for Thursdays.)

Of course a guy who breaks into people's houses to steal I-pods doesn't deserve the ninja title. According to Wikipedia, the original ninjas were Japanese warriors trained in the arts of sabotage, espionage, scouting and assassination. (There may even have been female ninjas--though the person who wrote the Wikipedia entry appears to be skeptical of this notion.)

If you're interested in ninjas (and don't mind a little blood and guts), I highly recommend Across the Nightingale Floor by Lian Hearn. It's set in feudal Japan and revolves around a secret society known as The Tribe. I loved it!

16 Comments:

Blogger International Mastermind said...

Hey Ananka, I was wondering if you could just check the Freaky blog, i had offered for you to be one of the first to submit a book for us to vote on for an award. If you want to just tell us! thx!

Maybe Kiki's ancestors were ninja women!

5:48 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey IM,

I will check out the blog. I'll write a review, too, but it's been a while since I read the book, and I may have to refresh my memory a bit first.

As for Kiki's ancestors . . . they were warrior women (some even believe they may have been the origin of the Amazons legend). A burial site was found near the Russian city of Pokrovka.

http://www.archaeology.org/9701/abstracts/sarmatians.html

6:21 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Oh. Wow. That. Doll. Is. So. Dang. CUTE!!

7:33 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I LOVED that book(and I really love ninjas too)

10:02 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey Kirsten. :) (Guess who?)
I've read 'Across the Nightingale Floor', and I loved it! It was really readable, and it was such a well-crafted fantasy. With such great imagery!
How are you going?

2:13 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I love ninjas!
My little brothers were ninjas for Halloween, and my Mom made them stay really close, cause they were almost invisible in the dark, and she didn't want them to get run over by a car.
Here's a link to how to make ninja headgear from a T-shirt:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/philbooth/How_To_Be_A_Ninja.jpg
If it doesn't work, you should find it if you do a Google Image search for ninja headgear.

9:48 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hazel: Cool link! And I love the idea of your brothers dressed as ninjas. Very cute.

Raphael: So glad you visited the blog! I'm doing pretty well at the moment--though it's unpleasantly cold outside. (And I left the house with my hair damp, so I'll probably catch my second potentially deadly cold of the season.) I envy you for enjoying the Sydney summertime! I hope you keep stopping by the blog from time to time. We could really use some more guys around here.

It's funny--I completely forgot about the other Tales of the Otori books. I'm going to go buy them today!

10:13 AM  
Blogger Erin said...

I will check out that book - I do not know much about ninjas, but would like to.

3:28 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

hey hazel how do you get to that website?? I can't get there! *sob sob*

8:35 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

There are female ninjas. I don't get why so many people discriminate because of gender. Kunoichi is the name for female ninjas. Girls also have their advantages, so don't like when people talk about them like they don't.

9:04 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Sweet. Ninjas. <(-.-<')-? I think ninjas are pretty cool. I like them in certain animes (not naruto ewww >:( ), I like their fighting moves, quick, cool, and their weapons. And that book that you said looks interesting. :) I'll check it out. Thanks for the post!!! o^-^o

10:56 PM  
Blogger Raph said...

(Same me, different account.)
So sorry about the weather - although I do much prefer the cold to the overly-hot. At the moment it's increasingly windy. I was at a restaurant with a friend for lunch, and a floor-to-ceiling lamp fell over inside (next to our table.)
And I'll definitely keep stopping by! I love this blog!! ^^

Anyway, hope you're well,

All the best!

- Raph

P.S. I can't wait for Kiki to reclaim the Pokrovian crown! :D

12:20 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I found it when I did a Google image search for ninja headgear, with no quotation marks. And here are two other links:
http://www.ninjaburger.com/employment/manual/ninjamask.jpg
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/philbooth/How_To_Be_A_Ninja.jpg

You should also find TEN on the first page if you search for ninja mask t shirt.
I hope you find it.

10:18 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

thanks hazel^_^ I think that I should give you a link too http://www.freedict.com/onldict/jap.html
this is for all your Japanese to English needs

7:17 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks, Ookamishinzui. Apparently, "ninja" is Japanese for "ninja."

5:36 PM  
Blogger Pearl said...

yeah but OTORI means a lure or decoy

6:14 PM  

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