Free Your City
Or – “Free: your city!”
Original photo by Kat Malin here.
Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag
..and he’s gonna groove it all night long!
From the good people at Bagaboo.
On Helmets and Rape
It occurs to me that telling cyclists to wear a helmet if they wish to avoid injury in collisions with motor vehicles is exactly like telling women that they shouldn’t wear ‘sluttish’ clothing if they don’t want to be attacked by rapists.
Blaming the victims.
That Messenger Chick
I’m just taking a moment to recommend one of the best courier blogs around: Thatmessengerchick. I’m afraid I don’t know her actual name – just that she currently rides in London and has very sound opinions that she expresses exceedingly well. Her current piece ‘Roadkill‘ is particularly hard hitting, but please do take some time to go through the rest of the site – she can be very funny too!
My bit on the ‘fakenger’ debate
I’ve just worked out what my problem with the so-called fakenger is.
As a courier of too many years experience, not all of it bitter, I share a bond with those who have also played the game, with those who continue to do so and even a little sympathy for those will do so in the future. As such, when I see from the corner of my eye the familiar ‘courier’ shape coming towards me on the street I automatically give them the ‘deeply fraternal’ smile, which is reserved exclusively for my brothers and sisters of the road.. (The merely ‘fraternal’ smile is for most other cyclists.) These days I too often find myself inadvertently bestowing the DFS on some undeserving hipster, and I feel sullied and disloyal. For this reason they should all either be removed from my view, or change their ways henceforth.
There. I didn’t know I felt so strongly about it.
Completely Stupid
Charles King, designer of the Range Rover and de facto father of the SUV has died after being injured in a bike crash.
He had this to say:
“Sadly, the 4×4 has become an acceptable alternative to Mercedes or BMW for the
pompous, self-important driver; to use them for the school run, or even in cities or towns at all, is
completely stupid.”
I’d like printed that up on a sticker….
Charles S. King, Range Rover Designer, Dies at 85 – Obituary (Obit) – NYTimes.com
Stupidity knows no bounds
Frank Zappa used to say that he believed that the universe was made mostly of stupidity, as opposed to the carbon that physicists propose, because that was what he saw all around him.
Mayor David Spellman of Black Hawk, Colorado is here to demonstrate:
