Forget about walking on water

they roll across it
in India

Over in Calcutta, the Sorcar Family has defied water by rolling on it. The renown family of Hindu magicians is riding bikes on pools of water deep enough to drown a man.

I wonder if they ever get doored by boats?

Rolling the waves is only the latest in a series of stunts (making an entire train disappear, for instance) that Sorcar has performed all over India.

2nd biker fatality

and again
in Logan Square

From the Chicago Tribune:

There were big plans in store for Amanda "Mandy" Annis this weekend. Her boyfriend planned to whisk her away to Pennsylvania to see her parents for the first time since they had moved back from Romania, her family said. He was going to ask her father for her hand in marriage and then propose.

But Mandy, a 5th-grade teacher at a West Side school, was killed Wednesday afternoon when her bicycle collided with a car in the Logan Square

"We don't understand," her father, John Annis, said as his voice broke over the telephone in a call from Allentown, Pa. "We don't know why things happen the way they do. But we trust [God's] heart that the best has happened, although it certainly doesn't feel that way."

neighborhood.

On the HelpPoint Ads

a guest posting

A few weeks back I posted the two bike-themed ads from Farmer's Insurance asking readers to decide if they were dissing our noble steeds. And UffdaDave took me at my word, penning the following guest post:

Is anyone offended by the Farmer’s HelpPoint Insurance ads? You know, the ones showing a well-dressed business professional struggling on a bicycle because he didn’t buy the right insurance and because of nebulous situations he doesn’t have his car. In one ad the businessman struggles riding a child’s bike. The overburdened two-wheeler creaks as he pedals over highways and city streets. In another the businessman has traded in his suit pants for a pair of too-short shorts, white tube socks and sneakers. Too add insult to injury, a coworker makes some cutting remark about the bike as they smugly walk to the office, and away from their overpriced, gas-guzzling, carbon-emitting vehicle (I’m guessing a Hummer H3 because in the city four-wheel-drive is extremely important while one is social climbing).

Now I know that Farmers HelpPoint really didn’t set out to insult anyone, and to say I’m offended may be a little harsh. I will say that I am amused at the idea that our car-loving culture finds a bicycle a commuting inconvenience. I’m even willing to bet that the thought of finding the commercials insulting, offending, or amusing, in a manner not intended by ad creators and buyers, is enough for some people to claim that I may be just a little too thin-skinned. But it isn’t a matter of over-sensitivity that gets my eyes rolling whenever I see the commercials, it’s the implication (in my interpretation) that my life is somehow hampered because I don’t have my automobile at my beck-and-call. It’s the insinuation that riding a bicycle to a job, particularly a professional job, is demeaning and humiliating.

For many years I enjoyed the luxury of a five-mile commute between my home and job. The office even had a little used locker room, with a shower, where I occupied several lockers for shower items and work clothes. I commuted on my bicycle practically any day there wasn’t a blizzard or subzero temperatures. It wasn’t until I took a new job and moved my family to a new town that I felt hampered by my commute. The roads were too busy, too fast, and there were no bike lanes. I so desired to get away from a car for a part of the commute that I would routinely haul my bike to place six miles from my office and ride in from there.

I realize that I’m the exception and not the rule but my short bike commute was mobile rehabilitation. I so hated my last six years working for a public television station that the morning ride was the bracer I needed to face the bozos of administration, and the evening was my therapy for a day spent under incompetent leadership. After my layoff I spent more time working and consulting from home and less time in the car. Now when I look at another full-time job I seriously consider how much driving is required, and whether or not the job is worth the time in a car.

But I really am amused when I see the commercials. I’m amused that, at least in my mind, the folks who sneer smugly at the thought of a bicycle commute are most likely the same who will spend a thousand dollars for a spinning class at some exclusive club. My latest commuting bike costs me $10.00 at the Volunteers of America, and another $20.00 to fix it up. I’m willing to bet I get the same amount of exercise as those spinning – and I get to see more than the inside of stuffy room. Plus, not to mention, that when I commute via the bike I don’t have to worry about gas, parking fees, insurance and pesky traffic jams.

What a radical idea, when I commute by bike I get exercise, help the environment and save money. Unless I want to believe Farmer’s HelpPoint Insurance, then the damned bike is nothing more than an inconvenience.

Davis Bike Church

G-d is in
the dérailleurs

The University of California - Davis has a bike church complete with its own ministers. It's part of the Sustainable Research Area on campus. The purpose is to promote various forms of human-powered transportation including biking.

It offers new and used bikes, parts, and accessories as well as tools and advice on how to fix bikes. The non-profit is operated by volunteers. All donations go to providing the community with more tools and a better workspace.

If you have a bike, bike parts or tools you are no longer using, please consider donating them to The Bike Church: bikeministry at ucdavis dot edu.

Yup ... Epcot

& I wore
the kilt!

Common books

meditations
on quotations

Nothing was more characteristic . . . in the thirties than the little notebooks with black covers which he always carried with him in which he tirelessly entered in the form of quotations what daily living and reading netted him in the way of “pearls” and “coral.” On occasion he read them aloud, showed them around like items from a choice and precious collection.

Hannah Arendt


Quotation, n: The act of repeating erroneously the words of another.

Ambrose Bierce


What a good thing Adam had. When he said a good thing he knew nobody had said it before.

Mark Twain


Everything of importance has been said before by somebody who did not discover it.

Alfred North Whitehead


When a thing has been said and well, have no scruple. Take it and copy it.

Anatole France


What's the use of a good quotation if you can't change it?

Doctor Who


I love quotations because it is a joy to find thoughts one might have, beautifully expressed with much authority by someone recognized wiser than oneself.

Marlene Dietrich

A biking composer

Sir Edward's fixie

Bike hipsters certainly aren't the first folks to celebrate their fixy obsession with alternative music. Back in 1900, Sir Edward Elgar, the English composer, bought a bought a Royal Sunbeam fixed wheel model with hand polished black enamel finish for £21. He toured regularly until he moved to London in 1910 writing in his journal that his biking experiences had inspired many of his compositions.

So famous was this late blooming love for biking that Worcester City and Malvern Hills District Councils have established The Elgar Trail. It's a 40-mile circular route through two counties taking in over 40 places of interest associated with his life and music.