----- Original Message -----

From: Jamis Buck

To: mizz-code@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Tuesday, February 09, 2010 12:45 PM

Subject: [mizz-code] "An Owl in Flight", simplified

 

I hit on a quicker way to reach the "core" figure for "An Owl in
Flight" tonight. I was playing with "two boys fighting for an arrow"
and realized that the "two triangle" intermediate figure you hit about
half-way through "Owl in Flight" is the final figure of "two boys".
(This one: http://www.stringfigures.info/cfj/two-boys-fighting-for-arrow.html,
the final figure being the one you get AFTER you release your index
fingers at the end.)

Here's the simplified version of Owl in Flight (using a short-cut past
that "two triangle" figure):

1 0,s
2 5,0a
3 1,0b
4 0T2/ (L or R first, makes no significant difference)
(at this point, you have the "core" of the figure)
5 1,5a
6 5,1b
7 2.6,2p
8 5 (auto-off 2 old)
9 2bd,2.6b (auto-off 2.6)
10 caroline

If, in step 4, you release the wrist loops instead of transferring
them to 2/, you'll get the "two triangle" figure. But then you'd have
to pick up 2,p1/, and it's easier to just describe that all as one
step (as in step 4).

A chiral variation of that same "core" figure is used to make "Texas
Lone Star" (invented by Frank Oteri and described by James Murphy in
BISFA #14).

1 0,s
2 1,0b
3 5,0a
4 0T2/
5 2h,1
6 1,(2h 2bl 5a)5b
7 3,2h
8 2
9 2,(3)5
10 3ab
11 1h-2h,3
12 2N
13 1hh,(1h*)1l
14 (1h*)1l
15 caroline

(13-14 are technically 1N, but because the difference between
"outermost" and "second-outermost" isn't clear there, I decided to be
more explicit about the double-navaho.)

Swapping steps 2 and 3 (as with "An Owl in Flight"), you'll get the
figure Oteri calls "Daisy Chain" (a central "sun" figure formed by
"chained" loops.)

- jamis