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Cycling Guidelines, or How Not To Be a Fred - Part II
IntroductionIn my last post I explored the difference between a) being a cycling fascist, and b) helping the reserved novice avoid some behavioral pitfalls that could cause embarrassment. In short, I...
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From the Archives - fiction - A Hair Cut
IntroductionThis is a short story from way back. It was inspired by my move to the Bay Area in 1990, and my abrupt recognition of how different it was from other places I’d lived. “Different” is...
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Tour de France TTT Preview - Can Tejay Take Yellow?
IntroductionThere’s no point in making uneducated guesses about the outcome of any sporting event, and plenty of the professional talking heads end up being wrong. But I’ve decided to do some serious...
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Biased Blow-By-Blow - 2015 Tour de France Stage 9 TTT
IntroductionWhat do you suppose goes through the minds of race announcers, that they’re not allowed to say? Maybe things like, “That guy’s obviously coked to the gills,” or “So-and-o looks like a damn...
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Biased Blow-By-Blow - 2015 Tour de France Stage 19
IntroductionIs it responsible for a journalist to cast aspersions, jump to conclusions, play favorites, and make fun of his subjects? Of course not. But is it okay for a journalist to keep his mouth...
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Biased Commentary - Froome, Nibali, and the “Dick Move”
IntroductionAs I recounted in my Biased Blow-By-Blow report of Tour de France Stage 19, there was some post-race mudslinging. Vincenzo Nibali had attacked right when Chris Froome was stymied by a bike...
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New Cycling World Record Set in Berkeley!
IntroductionRemember that “Brady Bunch” episode where Bobby and Cindy tried to set a world record for continuous teeter-tottering? Well even if you don’t, imagine trying to go watch their attempt, as...
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Can Too Much Exercise Damage Your Heart?
IntroductionI get a lot of bike-related articles in my e-mail, mostly via my bike club. When I get an article from two separate feeds, I know it’s something big. So it was with a recent front-page...
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Fiction - Revised Blood Donor Screening Questions
NOTE: This post is Rated R for pervasive mature themes and mild strong language.IntroductionThis post is a work of fiction. Certain brief passages are taken from an actual questionnaire given to...
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Dyna-Drive - Letter to an Old Gearhead
IntroductionRecently, I got into a long, rich e-mail exchange with a guy named Kevin, who is my friend John’s older brother. I know almost nothing about Kevin because back when we all lived in...
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From the Archives - STEM vs. Rhetoric
IntroductionSome seventeen years ago, before the novelty of e-mail had worn off, I forwarded around a funny message I got from my boss. My friend M— forwarded it to a bunch more people, and one of them...
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Biased Blow-By-Blow, Paris-Nice 2015, Stage Four
IntroductionNot everybody in this country is willing to get up at 6 a.m. to watch a bike race live. Other Americans are on the east coast so the race is happening during working hours, so they have to...
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Biased Blow-By-Blow - Milan-San Remo 2015
IntroductionIn a way, it’s hard to watch Milan-San Remo, the first of the so-called “Monuments” (i.e., really important races) of the year. It’s so fricking long, and so flat, that there’s really very...
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Fiction - Game Show of the (Near) Future
IntroductionI haven’t seen a game show in at least a decade, and I’ve seen almost zero reality TV, so perhaps I’m not the greatest person to create a story about them. On the other hand, who’s to say...
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From the Archives - Flooding
IntroductionI came across this little story—a true one—very recently. I’d completely forgotten it. This takes place just a few weeks after my wife and I had finished an 8-month bike tour and were...
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Adventures in E-Commerce - The Kettle Conundrum
Introduction“Can he really be that bitter?” A reader of my holiday newsletter, years ago, asked this. He was set straight by his wife, who correctly construed my newsletter as tongue-in-cheek. That...
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OK Calling Bike Clothes “Kit”?
IntroductionSome people really care about words. My favorite people are the type who will argue passionately and at length about a subtle shade of meaning. I was reminded of this when, in a group...
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“Kit” Revisited - Not OK with “Kit” Commentary!
IntroductionIn my last post I tried really hard to lead my readers away from using “kit” to refer to bike clothing. My strategy wasn’t to definitively prove that Americans who use this word are dorks,...
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Ride Report - Grizzly Peak Century with Teenager
IntroductionMembers of my bike club traditionally send out race reports, with a special focus on what was eaten before, during, and after the event. I barely ever race, but decided to produce a report...
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From the Archives - Irksome Little Pony
IntroductionRecently I was struggling (audibly, possibly profanely) with a teapot; I cannot pour from it without spilling. My wife said, “Hey, I like that teapot—don’t go ‘Diaper Genie’ on it.” She...
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