Up in the Air.

What activity uses "clubs" but is hot a card game? What activity can use knives, but is not camping or fishing? What activity uses "devil sticks" but has nothing to do with satanic worship?

The answer is really "up in the air" and, honestly, that's a straightforward answer.

I'm, of course, referring to juggling.

How about a few interesting facts about juggling?

* The earliest known depiction of toss juggling is Egyptian, from the 15th Beni Hassan tomb of an unknown prince, dating from the middle kingdom period of about 1794-1781 B.C.(*)

* The Chinese Book of Lie Zi, written during the Warring States Period (475-221 B.C.) and attributed to Lie Yukou, describes a Lan Zi from the state of Song in the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 B.C.) that juggled seven swords.(*)

* The current world juggling records are 12 rings, 11 balls, and 8 clubs. These records are for "flashes," where each object is thrown and caught at least once.(*)

* Juggling is seen as a circus skill or a performing art; but it is useful for scientific research. It is complex enough to have properties relevant to science, but simple enough to be modeled. It can be used to give insight into the co-ordination of humans and into robotics. The rate at which people can learn to juggle shows the level of difficulty of juggling different numbers of balls. While three halls can be mastered in a few hours, it may take months to learn to juggle four, and years for rive. This shows that the skill level necessary escalates out of proportion to the number of halls juggled.(**)

* Philosophers have argued over the definition of "man". A featherless biped? No, that includes plucked chickens. A tool using animal? No, that includes chimps and sea otters. I propose that we should consider man to be "the juggling animal," as no other species has managed to invent the three-ball cascade.(***)

Well, aren't these a collection of useful facts you can use in everyday life? These might be useful if you are ever a contestant on Jeopardy or just simply dying to beat your cousin at Trivial Pursuit. And speaking of trying to "one-up" one's cousin, that was my motivation for learning how to juggle. After seeing a younger cousin juggle at a family gathering, I decided if he could do it, then so could I. The only person who suffered for this was my father, who's work office was below my bedroom and had to absorb the multitude of repeated drops and miscues which are a part of learning how to juggle. I guess he knows what it's like to be on a submarine during wartime with depth charges exploding around him.

Juggling is a fun activity and is really net that difficult to learn. And once you do learn it's like riding a bicycle--you'll never forget. Plus, there's always a higher level to achieve that becomes increasingly more difficult as you add more props to your routine, so you'll never be bored. And if you really want a challenge try devil sticks, a hybrid version of juggling with sticks that is extremely tough to master. But for novices who can get to a moderate ability level, one can easily progress to juggling with others in passing patterns, which is quite fun.

The International Juggling Association (IJA), founded in 1947 and based in Montague, Massachusetts is a non-profit organization uniquely dedicated to the advancement and promotion of juggling worldwide. The IJA membership represents an incredibly diverse array of skills, ages and interests, and spans the range from full-time working professionals to hobbyists. There are numerous juggling clubs that have been formed around the country that you might want to join or maybe even start one of your own. IJA also offers large-scale conventions and fairs that attract some of the most talented jugglers in the world.

If you're interested in learning more about juggling, be it offering lessons in "how to" or to learn how to start a club, you can visit the International Jugglers Association web site at www.juggle.org. Or you can write them at IJA, P.O. Box 218, Montague, MA 01351.

(*) From Research in Juggling History by Arthur Lewbel, 1995.

(**) From There's more to juggling than meets the eye by Sophie Tatham, 1994.

(***) From The History of Juggling by Andrew Conway