<mtfester@netMAPSONscape.net> wrote in message
news:bth4kp$hs6$1@news.Stanford.EDU...
> Ryan Ginstrom <ginstrom@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> > <mtfester@netMAPSONscape.net> wrote in message
> > news:btg5e7$6t6$1@news.Stanford.EDU...
> >> Ryan Ginstrom <ginstrom@hotmail.com> wrote:
> >> > Question though: why do you think Gracie took off his gi for the
fight?
> >>
> >> That's actually more traditional for BJJ fighters; it's called "Valle
> >> Tudo", and that's actually how they first got famous.
>
> > Oddly enough, I knew that. I even know that it's spelled "vale tudo"
<g>, as
>
> Trust me, that depends on which poster you're looking at :-)
>
> > in Spanish "vale todo," anything goes.
>
> Portuguese.

Yes!

Portuguese: vale tudo
Spanish: vale todo

It's really amazing how far you can get in Portuguese with a decent command
of Spanish and a few of the basics. I went to Brazil with nothing but a
2-week course in "Portuguese for Spanish Speakers," a quite shitty
Portuguese<->Spanish dictionary, and a copy of the Portuguese translation of
Brave New World (Admiravel Mundo Novo?). Yet I didn't get arrested or shot
at once.

Although I once nearly starved to death, because I couldn't figure out the
Portuguese word for "fork" (which they had neglected to give me in the
restaurant), and "tenedor" wasn't doing the trick. That's when my very
successful career in miming was born.

> He originally wore a gi in the no-holds barred fights, using it as a
> weapon. That worked for awhile, until everyone figured out how to grab
> it to their advantage.

I guess I have been lax in keeping up with these things then. I thought it
was really cool when I saw him use his gi to choke someone once.

-- 
Regards,
Ryan Ginstrom