The other day I was walking down the street when I came across two young boys arguing over the last piece of pizza. “I deserve this piece of pizza,” said one of them. “No, you don’t,” said the other. “Yes, I do.” The arguing was very intense and carried on like this for at least ten minutes. Finally, one of them found a solution. “There is only one way to settle this,” said one of them. “Yeah?” asked the other. “We’ll have a shooting game.” “What’s that?” “The first person to shoot the other person gets the pizza,” said the taller of the two boys. He then pulled out a musket and shot the other in the head. Two days later the inflicted boy died. The one who shot him had already eaten the slice of pizza. Now, I’m not saying there isn’t ever a time and a place for street violence, but I believe that not every confrontation must end in such bloodshed. Though I commend the one boy for owning a musket in this day and age, I do believe he could have chosen a different way to handle the situation or at least shot the other boy in the leg. Since the clean teeth amendment of the 1942 the toothbrush has been one of this country’s most valuable tools, but I am not about to say that improvements still can’t be made to advance it. Namely, I believe the other end of the toothbrush, the end without the bristles, could use some modification or could at least be put to use and I doubt there is a better activity than sword fighting. I believe sword fighting, if correctly adapted to the streets, could have positive effects leaps and bounds beyond what the war of drugs accomplished. First of all, there would hopefully be less death. And second, with more people carrying their toothbrush, general hygiene would undoubtedly improve. For those who don’t want to give up the senseless violence of the street, proper etiquette of toothbrush dueling does allow the addition of a one inch blade to the end of the toothbrush. Also, it’s important to note that baseball bats are not allowed in duels even if the person claims to use the bat as their toothbrush and can even show the bristles on the bat handle to prove it. game created by Mark Baumer