Bike planet

and bike prejudice

During Thanksgiving in Ohio, UffdaDave's wife, Cyd, told me that she enjoyed this blog especially my observations on global politics. She's not as ga-ga about bikes as UffdaDave or me.

So here are eleven British postcards published at the begining of the 20th Century. They not only illustrate the global impact of bikes but the all too familiar British prejudices towards the great unwashed of the world. I wonder how many Western rollers still feel the same way.

At the pinnacle of power, the British Empire set the civilized example for the world. It sends out intrepid explorers, spreading the industrial blessings of the Western World. Compare the number of smokestacks to those in the other cards.

New Yorkers riding racing bikes
in their evening clothes?
Love their industry. Hate their vulgarity.

It's really, really, really cold there ...
'nuff said.

Even then, despite technological achievements
like the Eiffel Tower, the French were cheese-eating surrender monkeys.

Nasty, brutish, and short,
the Italians have only the glories
of their lost Roman past.

The romantic yet impractical Spaniards.

Out on the eastern edge of Europe,
the Germans eat way too much schnitzel.

At least the well-dressed Austrians
know how to keep their weight down.

Ah, the inscrutable Orientals...
they aren't sophisticated enough to produce steel rims or dog leashes.

Malnurished and backward,
docile muslims before al Qaeda.

Like their neighbors, the Italians:
nasty, brutish, and short.
Unlike them:
more backward and black
... of course.