Posts by JackElder
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I believe that the twin towers were brought down by thermite-packed bicycles in the basement, left by public transport activists disguised as couriers.
Look, if there's one thing that has by now been conclusively established, it's that this bike is not a pipe bomb.
And merkins aren't just a 'merkin thing: due to the difference between contemporary pubic grooming and that prevalent in ancient Rome, the cast of Spartacus: Blood & Sand had to be outfitted with individual merkins. You can imagine that they were clearly labelled to prevent confusion in the costume department: it's on thing to be accidentally given someone else's hat, but you really don't want to be playing swappa-merkin by mistake.
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I always confuse "brazen" with "brazing", and get odd visions of a scantily-clad woman operating a welding torch.
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Got busted ogling this bit of bike porn yesterday.
Alfine 8-spd hub gear, hydraulic disk brakes... looks like an excellent commuter, or just a fairly bulletproof general purpose bike (or, as Merida themselves call it, a "coffee shop bike" cough cough). I'd be tempted. Quick google didn't turn up any retailers in NZ, though Merida do sell here and somewhere like Rocket Bikes would probably be able to sort you out. In the same vein, I'm still contemplating acquiring one of the Avanti Blade 8 belt drive bikes for winter use.
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See, I have this problem with increasingly loving cycling, but thinking that fancy cycling gear looks daft and try-hard on people who aren't proper competitive cyclists.
Nah, it's part of the fun. Half the reason I cycle is to have an excuse to wear lycra.
More seriously: if you've not tried "proper" cycling kit, give it a go. A decent pair of proper shorts makes a huge difference to comfort (and prevents inner thigh chafing). And for jerseys, you can go understated if you want - though garish is much more fun. Team replica can look a bit tryhard (though I occasionally wear my 2003 CSC replica kit, allez Tyler Hamilton and all that), but it's also just a hell of a lot more comfortable than a t-shirt when you're giving it welly.while sitting on one of these (also known as Cheeko 90)
Get yerself a Brooks. They take about 1000km to break in, then they're ludicrously comfortable. The Doc Marten of bicycle saddles. I run a B17 on my road bike, and it's glorious.
Back to context: I have, on occasion, had wolf-whistles or admiring comments about my lycra-clad arse while I'm out riding - usually from cars full of young women. I'm pretty sure that's objectification, but I'm not complaining.
cargo shorts - so instead of looking like a daft try-hard cyclist, you can look like a daft 90's fashion throwback
Hellfire, are cargo shorts a daft 90s throwback thing? I'm wearing a pair right now!
Oh, as long as they don't get their balls shaved and feel compelled to share their adventures in man-scaping with a horrified family gathering.
Wow. Really? Even the professionals mostly don't bother shaving much past the end of their shorts. I'm really struggling to think what on earth a denuded scrotum could do to knock a few seconds off your 10k TT splits.
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My wife was once approached by a couple of Mormon missionaries. "Excuse me, sir..." one began. She cut him off with "Mate, I'm a girl, and I don't want to hear about your dumb-ass religion!". The other missionary burst out laughing and they left her alone.
Personally, I don't have a problem with being rude to door-to-door salespeople of any stripe (religion, power companies, etc). They're being rude by imposing themselves on you to try to sell something, so I don't have a problem with being rude back.
But I do agree with your closing points. Underneath all the pontificating blowhards and retrospective justifications, there's a lot of people just quietly getting on with trying to be good people. This isn't unique to religion, by any stretch, and in some cases their version of "good" radically differs from my own, but fair play: at least they're trying.
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is there no barrier separating the two?
Nah man. SOP is to paint the occasional outline of a bicycle on the footpath every once in a while.
It's not really safe to be ripping down the hills on it at 50kmh unless you're certain that people (or dogs) couldn't just step out of the bushes. I very nearly collected one guy doing this - pedestrians just don't expect to have to look on a cycleway.
Very much agree here. Anecdata, but I've known several people who've had very nasty accidents from pedestrians unexpectedly stepping out in front of them (for instance, out of a shop front in Kaiwharawhara in Wellington).
I didn't much like how people acted in Germany regarding cycleways and pedestrian zones, ringing the bell angrily and shouting at anyone walking in the cycleway.
A few years ago I had the misfortune to be cycling about 500m behind someone who did this all along the cycleway along the Hutt Road. He'd come up fast behind the pedestrian(s), ring his bell frantically, and shout at them. People were startled and jumped out of his way. By the time they thought "what a rude bastard!" he was 200m down the road. But by the time I, the next cyclist, came past, they'd had time to get good and angry, and determined to give a cyclist grief.
I have never had so much abuse shouted at me in a short period of time as I did on that commute. Not even the time I rode in skintight lycra through the pissed-up crowds waiting for the AC/DC concert.
Perhaps the law of the sea ought to be applied to land; faster moving vehicles give way to slower moving things (pedestrians or cyclists)
Certainly all the bike paths I can think of here in Wellington have large signs saying "Cyclists give way to pedestrians". It's a good idea, as well as polite.
The average punter who just wants to get from A to B without being an athlete is unlikely to be going so fast they can't take evasive action.
And I'd say that anyone who is going so fast they can't take evasive action is a bloody idiot.
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Now a manatee would be a different proposition.
Indeed. You could combine it with lettering and a sculpture to recreate this famous scene.
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Does anyone else remember Chris Eccleston playing Iago in the modern-day BBC retelling of Othello? Wow, he was scarily good.
If you get a chance, see the version of The Revenger's Tragedy that Alex Cox directed a few years ago. Eccleston is excellent as the doomed protagonist, and Eddie Izzard makes a good fist of the preening fop. Plus, it's set in post-apocalyptic Liverpool, which is quite hard to tell apart from pre-apocalyptic Liverpool.
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are we certain it was even an RPG? looked like a big telescopic lens on a camera to me.
This point has been noted by other commentators.
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Was it a birthday, and were they SMOKING cigars?
Shot. Chapeau, man.