"Run to the side of the room"

“Sometimes you’re in a fight and you keep hitting the other guy with your right hand ‘cause that one’s usually the strongest.  Then, they start to figure it out so you hit them with the left and that’s called strategy!”  Towers in Space.

Randori used to be about fighting a group of attackers.  Today it is usually just to show that a student can respond to freestyle movements with little time to think about their responses.

Jiyu waza is difficult, and therefore often watered down for safety.  Many schools have taken safety concerns to the extent that learning how to deal with more than one committed attacker is not part of the practice.   Two attackers working together are much, much harder than one actual attacker with three people standing around at a safe distance waiting their turn.  People like to have a plan, so there are old strategies that get trundled out to deal with a far too modern situation.

I have heard many students and teachers say, “Run to the side of the room” without having a clear idea why.  The concept is time honoured, and very powerful when used properly.  This is battle strategy, and all strategies can be countered or used wrongly and all strategies will need to be abandoned or changed as the situation changes.  The original strategy was for dealing with people moving in a definite formation.  It usually has no purpose in modern randori where the attackers are trying to do the exact opposite of formation fighting.

Strategies from years ago are influenced heavily by rank-and-file swordsmanship.  The sword is held in the right hand, with the scabbard on the left.  Several people can do shomenuchi or tsuki for hours and not worry about cutting their fellow soldier to their left or their right.  The sword moves in a small corridor. 

Side to Side motions cut the people you are trying to fight alongside, which lead to doh cuts and yokomenuchi attacks either being excluded or modified (done at a sharp diagonal) so that you didn’t destroy your own line of defense.  When you are in formation, you really cannot run left or right to dodge an attack.  The wings of the formation have some leeway to their open side but the whole formation cannot be brought to bear.

There were no left handed swordsmen until the Europeans started dueling, and paired weapons were for use in a free-for-all or against a group; they were not used in a front line.  Someone using a weapon in their left hand while standing beside someone trying to use a weapon in their right would lead to the two soldiers cutting each other.  Someone with an empty right hand with a right handed swords man on their right leaves a gap in the front line – a full charge would not meet a weapon at that spot.  This is especially true for Roman sword and shield techniques; one could fall on the shield and find an opening.  On the other side, the soldier’s weapon hands have been cut.  As the shield bearer’s fly around, they cut each other in turn.  One attacker has opened up a gap in the frontline three people wide in a second.  Left handed people are definitely unlucky for the entire medieval military.

With cavalry, to attack their flank meant to strike a larger target.  Facing a horse head on meant to be facing a smaller target, and even if you dealt a killing blow a one ton armoured Clydesdale with an armoured rider was going to land on top of you. 

When charging, the cavalry saber was used to slash up and down, while the lance was used to puncture straight forwards.  A horse could not change direction easily in the middle of a charge, nor could the rider attack directly sideways without a great deal of specialized training.  So, eventually this evolved to chariots with two riders (one driving, one using a bow and arrow) and eventually tanks with independent drivers and gunners in one vehicle (groups working in concert). 

When a medieval soldier broken through the front line or outflanked the enemy, that person could attack the front line from behind.  The front line could not turn away from the opposing front line they faced without being stabbed in the back, but they could not individually defend against being stabbed in the back by the people who were behind them.  In chess, this is why a pawn that makes it to the far side of the board becomes a queen.  The balance of power is tipped greatly when the front line is breeched.

Aircraft fly in formation, because like the sword bearing soldiers, pilots attack forward.  When aircraft fire in formation, the largest possible target area gets attacked while lessening the risk to the individual planes.  Small aircraft are vulnerable from behind and from the flanks.  Larger bombers have free turrets that are independently operated, but this is an example of a group working in concert.  Formation was still held so that friendly fire did not decimate the attacking force, and it still allowed for more even bombing while making sure no one ran into bombs deployed by their own force.  The original idea of aircraft in war was a method to outflank the ground troops, bombing them from above and attacking them from vectors they could not defend against.  Air superiority has decided every major conflict since. 

The modern rifleman also fires in a specific direction, and if working in a group can’t fire in every direction without killing his fellow soldiers.  The flanks are the most vulnerable part of a fighting force.  The Aikido maxim about going to the side is to learn about the vulnerability of the flank.  When the flank is attacked, the other members of the front line cannot turn and attack without risking cutting their own, or exposing their own personal flank to the opposing force. 

The irimi technique is very much about finding the individual’s flank and blind spot, a flanking maneuver does the same thing for a larger fighting force.  As Musashi said, fighting one to one or ten thousand a side is the same.  To face a group in a tight line formation, the flanks are the safest spot for the nage and the easiest place from which to control the pace of the fight.

Trying to outflank your attackers and failing to do so can happen.  If the room is too small, your uke can get to the wall sooner than you can.  If they anticipate the strategy, they will be stretched across the room or leaving the center open.  If they are far away from you, they can respond to your actions easily and run you down.  They have time to adapt if you have committed.  As we don’t require it of uke today, they probably will not even advance in a linear formation.  We’ll correct them if they even try.  So, you can’t respond like you expect them to move in this fashion. 

Running to the side of the room leaves you surrounded if everyone is moving at a different speed and hoping to ‘wait their turn.’  You’ll get past one person and maybe the second and the rest will be in position to corner you.  Like all battle plans, you can spend months planning, but it comes down to a couple of seconds before you engage.  You need to be responsive.

If you have run to the side of the room against the wall and not ended up at the rear of a line then you’ve become trapped as you can only move in a 180 degree area (you can’t run through the wall), and can only move forward.  This is a problem for Aikido practice, particularly for nice people who try to avoid irimi and would never risk hurting their partners.  In a real situation you would throw someone against the wall, or into another person.  You do not want to do this in practice with friends, so therefore you cannot tenkan unless you control your technique. You can only safely drive a person backwards with irimi techniques provided this won’t cause a collision.  Your options are very limited, and your attackers are in a good position to predict and respond to your choices.  Or, a choice you make causes someone you should be looking after to have an injury. 

The same situation can happen with individual throws anywhere in the room.  You have to make sure that the throw’s vector is not straight down.  Not only is this weaker and potentially lets uke back into their strength; if uke falls they will probably land in contact with you or very close to you.  You have lost a direction to travel in, and now you need to run away. To throw someone on the ground at your feet is much the same as being up against the wall – you don’t want to step on someone you are practicing with, and you don’t want to throw your training partners on top of each other.  You have a very restricted window of safety before the uke on the ground can get up, and they may still be holding you for the other attackers to finish you.  In the dojo and the real world this means both a delay in your ability to respond and a restriction in your available responses to the next attack.   In the real world, the hope is that the straight downward force will seriously injury the attacker, and throwing a second person on top is even more damage to both.  You still need to get clear of that area very quickly.

Are you involved in many “accidents” in regular practice?  If your ukes are colliding with people or the walls of the dojo or falling off the mat you need to wake up.  You’ll never handle two attackers in the environment if you are too inwardly focused to safely handle one attacker.  Know what space you have to work in.  See the people around you.  Know where the mats end and the walls start, even when you’re the one being thrown.  The most basic level of awareness needed for good randori starts in everyday basic practice.

While we don’t practice fighting as a cohesive group, the group will spontaneously try to encircle you, charge you, or block you.  Even when not working together, the group will adopt a triangle, a square or a circle in relation to you.  Use straight lines with circles, and circle triangles and squares.  Treat the group as one unified whole, even when then members of that group do not think that they are.  They are unified in their objective and their training in the dojo.  Accept controlling a group as possible, and you will find a way to make it happen.  See several people as an individual, and do nothing different than you would in dealing with an individual.  Explore classical techniques – they were made for dealing with groups of attackers.  There is nothing new to learn in being able to control a group, only something new to accept. 

Cheesecake improv

Cheesecake

So, I did mention early on that I would be blogging about food too, but I really haven’t done much yet. 

I like to make cheesecakes.  There aren’t many ingredients to a basic recipe, and I hate to follow recipes anyway.  But, baking is different than cooking.  You can add more ingredients to a stew if it’s “missing something.”  You can only add more garnish to a cake.  Even when a cake is under baked, it’s done.  Everything needs to be correct up front.  So, how do you get creative with this?  I have a basic recipe that I use for a canvas, and then I play around from there.

Pan preparation:

I have two spring form pans, one is 7”, and the other is 10”.  Most of my recipes are for my ten inch pan.

I use baker’s parchment on the bottom and sides of the pan.  The bottom can usually be covered by placing the parchment inside, then closing the side of the pan down.  I use a very small amount of canola oil on the sides of the pan to help the parchment stick.  I just dip my finger in the oil and rub my finger on the pan.  There is no need for more.

It’s okay if the parchment is higher than the sides of the pan.  I’ll cut a piece of parchment down the middle and this leaves the paper 3” or so above the pan.  Let the ends of the parchment overlap so that the batter can’t seep through.  A little bit of canola oil between the ends of the parchment helps it to hold its shape.

The crust gets put into the pan next.

Crusts

Cheesecake can be well complimented by a wide variety of crusts, or the crust can be omitted.  I have used a regular graham cracker crust, and it’s easy.

Two cups of Graham crumbs

½ a stick of butter, melted.

Mix the two together, and then push the crust into the bottom of the pan.  If you have more crumbs, you can shape the crust up the side of the pan.

I like to use a variety of cookies for the crust.  I’ll grind up 365 brand gingersnaps and add the butter as above for a citrus cheesecake.  I’ll use Oreo or plain chocolate cookies ground up in a food processor for most types of cheesecake.  If I do a coconut cheesecake I’ll put coconut into the crumbs about 3:1 crumbs to coconut.  When I do an almond or a hazelnut cheesecake I’ll put ground nuts into the crumbs at equal portions or less.  The nuts can be lightly toasted, but they are going to bake so don’t over toast them.

The pan then goes into the oven at 300 for 10 minutes or so to set the crust.  The crust will be easily shaped further while it is still warm.

Batter:

This is my basic recipe.

Four packets of cream cheese (one pound) at or close to room temperature  (Product shot:  I like to work with Philadelphia the most, but I do use organic brands for my wife.)

4 eggs

Put the cream cheese in a strong mixer and mash it until it’s creamy.  Then add the eggs and get the batter to a uniform consistency.  If your mixer is straining, then add the eggs or let the cream cheese get a little warmer – the colder it is, the harder it will be for your mixer.  I’ve blown out a few motors by trying to rush things.  I now use a Kitchen Aid Pro mixer.

To finish off a very basic cheesecake, I add one cup of sugar and 1-2 tablespoons of vanilla and mix it well.  If you want a basic cake, then add the sugar with the cream cheese early on.

I will often not put the sugar in at the beginning.  Wait, No Sugar?!?  I sometimes don’t use sugar and use coffee syrups instead.  If I am using new flavours, I will add the sweeteners LAST.  If I am adding fresh fruit to the mix, I get the fruit pulp into the cheesecake and then determine if the batter is too sour or if I think it really needs more sugar.  Maple syrup and molasses will also work, but the flavour is much stronger than regular sugar so you might need to mix the various sugars to taste.

BECAUSE, my real trick with cheesecake is that I finally figured out that the batter will TASTE very similar raw compared to how it will taste fully baked.  So, I taste the batter often while making a new flavour (yes, raw eggs and all.  Use your own discretion, but that’s my secret to working with a new flavour of cheesecake).  So, if the batter tastes slightly more sour than I want after putting in fruit, I will then add an additional 1/4c of sugar for every 1c of fruit like strawberries or blueberries but I add the sugar one tablespoon at a time and I taste it after each tablespoon and when I like the flavour, I stop.  Actual sour fruit would probably need much more sugar to get a batter to my taste. 

Some recipes will call for jams, and I will do this again adding slowly until I like the look and taste.  Things like peach jam will be overwhelmed and too subtle, so I prefer to use the actual fruit.  On the other hand, I prefer to use seedless raspberry jam as the batter will have an almost sandy texture if I use the actual fruit.  When using jam, flour will almost certainly need to be added, about 1 tbsp for each cup of fruit.

Consistency is a bit of a trick.  I want the batter to be more on the stiff side.  I go for a honey consistency.  If the batter is too liquid after adding my flavourings, I will add a tablespoon of flour at a time until the batter looks a little more gelatinous.  I never add more than 3 tablespoons of flour. 

If the batter is liquid, it will bake, but it will probably need more time and it’s harder to try to make the batter a little bit fancier.  Fruit and nuts will fall to the bottom, and any attempt to mix contrasting colours and flavours will just make a mess unless the batter has some ability to stand up.

Some batters will come out very stiff, and that’s okay.  For a chocolate cheesecake, I will put 1 lb of dark chocolate in a pan with three tablespoons of butter and 1c of sour cream.  I’ll add a 1/4c of cocoa when the chocolate has melted.  I keep the stove top on at the lowest possible heat and I stir often and usually turn off the heat and let the chocolate finish melting without direct heat.  Use a double boiler otherwise, but don’t get any water in the chocolate.  This will make a bit of a ganache consistency, which makes adding the chocolate to the cream cheese much easier.  When the chocolate mixture is added to the colder cream cheese, the batter will get very stiff and a spoon will stand up in it as melted chocolate will solidify, but will become liquid again during baking.  I don’t use the melted chocolate without something added to it to make it more liquid, as it will become a very solid lump as it gets rapidly cooled.  You have been warned by the voice of bad experience. 

You can add nuts if you like, but put them in before the chocolate.  I’ll use Hazelnut coffee syrup for this batter and there is no problem with the extra liquid.  Do not add any flour; you won’t need it for this one.  The chocolate will melt and the batter will become smoother during baking, so there is no need to mash the batter down in the pan.  So, pay attention to your ingredients.

I have divided the basic batter into two or three and then added different flavourings to each one.  One batter can be a little more liquid than another, but batters still need to be soft enough to be mixed when a knife is run through the batter at the end.  Pour a portion of the batter in, and then add spoonfuls of another, then more of another batter until the pan is filled (read below first).  Don’t try to make the various dollops too small, or there will be no distinction between them.  Take a butter knife and swirl through the cheesecake a few times, trying not to scratch the crust.

Baking:

The whole pan gets set on tin foil and the foil closed up around the sides (not over the top obviously).  The pan then gets set in a roasting pan with water on the bottom of the roaster.  I have heard of water being put half way up the pan, I do an inch of water because my roaster is shallow.

The batter gets poured in, and then the roaster pan with water and cake goes back into the oven at 300 for an hour and a half.  Check the cake very infrequently because the steam will be released ever time the door to the oven is opened.  I use the convection bake setting on our gas oven, but I’m not certain how much that matters if you don’t have an oven with this setting.

Let the cake cool down fully before opening the pan.  I let mine cool for an hour, then refrigerate overnight.

Decoration:  Be careful with caramel or chocolate as these will be stronger and harder to cut than the actual filling and the cake will be crushed out of shape when you try to cut it.  I will melt the chocolate and then take a spoonful and wave it over the top to get very fine threads of chocolate.  Crushed nuts, chocolate flakes and candy can be put on top quickly while the chocolate is still not fully cooled, then add more chocolate threads overtop again.

I have done glazes in the past, but rarely. 

3/4c of water  

2 tbsp of cornstarch or some other thickener like kudzu

sugar to taste, about 1/2c but some fruit requires more.

2c of whatever fruit you wish to use, divided with half the fruit crushed up.

Heat the water and sugar in a pan, take half the fruit and crush it.  Then, take the other half of the fruit and place it on the cake top then pour the glaze over top.  You might prefer to leave the side of the pan on for this step.  Then, refrigerate the cake again for two hours or more.

Specific recipes available if anyone wants them.

Chocolate almond cheesecake

Four packs of creamcheese

four eggs

Mix these two at room temperature in a mixer

16oz of dark chocolate

3oz of butter

1c sour cream

Melt the butter and chocolate together in a saucepan, then add the sourcream when the chocolate is liquid.

1 1/2c ground almonds lightly toasted

1 1/2c chocolate cookie crumbs

1/2 stick of butter

Mix the crumbs and ground nuts together, then add the butter.  Press the butter into the pan and bake at 300 for ten minutes.  While waiting, add:

Almond coffee syrup to taste (about 1/4 to 1/2c) to the cream cheese mixture

Scrap the chocolate mixture into the creamcheese mixure.  You can add additional chopped almonds to the batter at this step.  Bake in a pan prepared as above for 90 minutes on 300 (specific baking instructions mentioned above).

Red, White and Blue Cheesecake for July 4th, 2011

This cake starts like my basic, then gets divided into three equal parts.  I would probably try each piece in isolation in the future.

Graham crust as above.

Four packages of cream cheese

Four eggs

1c sugar

Take three bowls and divide the batter into three, about 1 1/2c per bowl

1st bowl Do nothing, maybe add some vanilla

2nd bowl Add 1c purreed strawberries and maybe some food colour

                Add 1-2 tbsp of flour to make the batter thicker

                Then, add 1/4c of sugar to help the sweetness of needed.

3rd bowl  Add 1c purreed blueberries and maybe some food colour

                Add 1-2 tbsp of flour to make the batter thicker

                Then, add 1/4c of sugar to help the sweetness if needed

                 With 2-3 tbsps of flour, you should be able to add fresh berries without them sinking to the bottom

Prepare the pan and crust as mentioned above, then add the different batters a part at a time.  Make sure the batters don't over mix and are stiff enough to be around other colours.  Run a knife through the batter at the very end of all the pouring, then directly into the oven at 300 for 90 minutes, using the water bath as described above.



Chocolate hazelnut cheesecake pieces.

Use a heartshaped mold in a water bath and use hazelnut coffee syrup or frangelico for the sweetness

Plain cheesecake with Raspberry collis

Kawahara Shihan

With Sensei in Japan in 2003

Yukio Kawahara Shihan, 8th dan, the technical director of the Canadian Aikido Federation, a direct student of O Sensei and a very gifted, very generous and gracious man, passed away late on June 2nd. According to the shidoin who phoned me, he was surrounded by his students.

I've tried to blog about Sensei several times, and I always end up deleting the entry. He was a private man by choice and never sought the limelight. He was also careful about his legacy and cautious about what he taught to whom.  He was a strong advocate of practice, and I think he considered our practice more important than any ceremony directed at himself.

He had a mischievous sense of humour. There are many stories of a camera being brought into a class, only to have him "accidentally" stand with his back to the camera and say things like, "This hand work is very important!" His students learned to never sit anywhere near the camera because we'd never see much of his hands.

He was a real prankster. After he got his first vehicle with a key fob, he took great pleasure in acting innocently nonchalant while walking with his students to his car in the parking lot, only to secretly set off his car alarm to see if we would jump. Once, I heard him tell an instructor that he was to meet us at a certain time and place, and he was adament that the instructor should not be late! Then, Sensei told me to drive past the instructor as though we didn't see his glare as we breezed by him. "John, is he running after us?" asked Sensei.  For all that, Sensei was always polite, and insisted we be the same.

In a particularly memorable demonstration of his abilities, when he overheard a student talking loudly during a break at a seminar about how he wasn't sure the old sensei could still take ukemi, Sensei came up behind him with a forward roll, close enough I thought they were going to collide, but so quietly that the jackass never noticed Sensei was even there. Sensei motioned for us to be quiet as he moved back across the room with the loudmouth none the wiser. 

The first time I was going to be at a seminar of his, I was all excited! I had an image in my mind of someone who exuded danger and poise with every movement, yet at the same time embodied the peace of the Buddha:  vintage Schwarzenegger meets Ghandi meets Sho Kosugi meets David Carradine meets an Asian Adonis. Sensei was short, had a potbelly and liked his beer. He also liked to shop for shoes, which we did on several occasions. Yet every time he taught he could do something that scared/inspired/shocked/stunned me. He was incredibly fast, and very solid. 

Every time I trained with him I saw something I had never seen before that turned years of training on its head. When I asked a longtime high-ranking student of his who had been training under Sensei for over 30 years if he was familiar with everything Sensei taught, the student told me he was still seeing new material every time he attended a seminar.  In spite of his broad range of technique, Kawahara Sensei gave us very traditional Aikido. He was a genius and a prolific creator. Nothing mattered to him more than giving his best for his students.

Some of his many contributions were his "recipes." "If you want good Yonkyo, do Yonkyo to a partner 100 times a day for 100 days." I had few volunteers to help with this practice. Once, Sensei was telling me to do something 30 minutes a day every morning immediately after waking up. I was doing shift work, and I already had difficulty getting enough sleep and I told him so. He gave me a flat, level stare. "Yes. Difficult. I know." And then he shrugged, as if to say, "What's your point?"

Once I asked him about Tachidori techniques when I was visiting his dojo. He said nothing as we walked upstairs to the dojo and he took a shinai off the wall. "I hit you now." For the next several minutes, his eyes glittered and he laughed uproariously as he repeatedly hit me on the head, no matter how I tried to dodge. He would raise the shinai over his head and wait a split second, then CRACK.  I remember thinking his face looked like a picture of Santa Claus. He was having so much fun with this, and so was I. After 100 strikes (I somehow kept count), he handed the shinai to me and said, "You more practice. Take this." That's how he gave me my shinai as a gift.

One of the things about him my wife remembers is how kind his eyes were.

I don't know much about his life. He didn't share much. One thing about him that I didn't notice for quite some time when I first met him is that his thumb was missing on one hand. I later learned that he did not want to be asked about it, and over the years I never learned the story behind it. I noticed that often he would not shake hands when meeting people, and I think part of the reason is that he didn't want to bring attention to his missing thumb. Once, when I was with him during a doctor's visit, the doctor asked him what had happened, and Sensei went so far as to say it was a childhood accident (I actually offered to leave the room before he responded to the question).

The thing is, I often would forget that he had a missing thumb, and for years, when I did remember, I couldn't clearly recall which thumb. He could put Yonkyo and Nikyo on me that was simply one of the most excruciating things I've ever felt. His Kotegaeshi was enormously powerful. There was no way to feel if the left side or right side was "better." It was all powerful. Now that I have one arm that is partly paralyzed, I find myself following his example to guide my own practice.

Someone used this picture for a seminar poster once. Sensei's response to seeing it
was, "What an ugly-looking man! You should get a picture of a better-looking man!"

There are some things that Sensei shared with me about his past, and other things that I learned from others. Once, when Sensei was visiting a student's house during a potluck, I heard that he saw a picture of an American WWII warship on the wall. He asked the student why he had a picture on the wall of the warship that had sunk his father's ship in the Battle for the Pacific. One of the student's relatives had served on the American ship. I never had the chance to ask Sensei about the story or whether his father had survived. 

Sensei told me he was living in Nagasaki during the war. He told me of planes flying overhead every day and shooting at the city constantly. He remembered a childhood friend of his getting shot through the kneecap by one of the bullets, which exited through the sole of his friend's foot. Then, one day, when he was eight years old, the room Sensei was playing in went very bright and the windows exploded inward. He was close enough to feel the blast, but far enough away that the atomic bomb didn't completely level his house. (He told me through an interpreter that he was eight at the time, but if his birthday was in 1940 he would have been five years old.)  He told me he remembered that the planes stopped shooting the day after the bomb was dropped and that the city suddenly fell silent. During a trip that Sensei arranged for several of his students, we went to the memorial at Hiroshima, but we did not go to Nagasaki. He told me that he had no family there anymore (though I did once hear that he had a sister).

At 17, he began his practice of Aikido. He was in Osaka at the time, and the stories he told of his years there made it sound like the various dojos were responsible for law enforcement immediately after the war. He told me about knife fights for food. From the sound of it, unions and rioters were brutally made to conform. The results still speak for themselves. In Hiroshima, the trains were running in just over 100 days after the bomb dropped. Crime is still shockingly less prevalent in Japan than in many other countries. You can still leave your wallet on a park bench in Tokyo and have it returned with the ID and money still in it. Compare that to New Orleans, which following Hurricane Katrina still hasn’t recovered. 

I once saw the AikiWeb site refer to Sensei as a student of Banzen Tanaka. I asked Sensei about this, and he told me his primary teacher was named Kobayashi. When I was very new and made the mistake of asking him if he had been a student of O Sensei, he was emphatic that he had been. I had been under the misunderstanding that O Sensei had lived and taught only in Tokyo. From what I've learned since, O Sensei was not around Hombu Dojo consistently after the war and spent large portions of time in Osaka, as well as Iwama.

At some point after being made Shihan, Kawahara Sensei was deployed by Hombu to teach in Taiwan, where he remained for three years before anti-Japanese sentiment compelled him to leave. He then moved to Montreal, where he taught for a period of time before relocating to British Columbia. He would remain there for the rest of his life.

I think Sensei spent less than half his time at home and the rest of the time travelling across Canada. He would travel to Saskatoon to teach one weekend, stay with us for the week, then travel to Atlantic Canada to teach the next weekend so that the full price of the plane ticket wouldn't have to be absorbed by his students at either location. His work for Aikido in Canada was demanding and consuming. He gave a huge portion of his life to his students. He always stayed human while always being an inspiration.

I'm going to miss you Sensei. Rest in Peace.