One such example would be the ever-comical "Spokes" blog about cycling in New York. One of their more recent posts is about people who never learned to ride a bike, or learned as a child and then forgot, and are taking lessons out of embarrassment it seems. The techniques employed by the instructors range from the correct way to learn (getting on and pedaling), to strange methods such as removing the pedals and coasting downhill. Interestingly, the removing the pedals technique was cited as a way to first tackle the balance part before the students moved on to more complicated things like moving their legs.
Imagining middle aged people shakily rolling down a mild slope with maniacal grins simultaneously cracks me up and strikes me with utter fear.
Despite my reasonable amount of experience on a bicycle, and a recently acquired ability to ride in a perfectly straight line, unsteady cyclists scare the shit out of me and my knuckles turn white at the thought of their swelling numbers.
Another post on the Spokes blog is about the popularity of "beater bikes" that can be found at bike-swap meets around the city and people troll for a "$100 lock and $50 bike". I'm all about frugality and utilitarianism, but something about spending more on the lock than the bike doesn't quite compute...
However, Spokes did manage to break one hard-hitting story that is sure to shock and amaze all who read it.
update: i meant to write a tirade about this "study" a while back, but remembered to keep quiet if i couldn't think of anything nice (or funny) to say. Anyway, a related story ran in the NY Post a few weeks back but I neglected it because it seemed too easy to pick on and the Times does such a lovely job with their statistics and "research". Kyle Smith (by whom it is written) is one of those media figures that I just can't seem to figure out; is he seriously this close-minded or is it all an elaborate rouse to make naive people get their panties in a bunch?
In case you're trying to recall what impunity means, as I just did, you'll find the definition beguiling: im·pu·ni·ty - Exemption from punishment, penalty, or harm. I'm not sure how the game-of-death i like to call riding in manhattan exempts me from punishment, penalty, or harm... Really, I don't see it.Ehh mediocrity subsists, I suppose.
Anyway, speaking of obvious failures, Gehry's stupid proposal for the Atlantic Yards stadium is being canned; though not because it looks like soupy shit, but because it would cost too much (dollars, not neighborhoods) to erect. Unfortunately for us all, this does not mean the Nets will stay in Jersey after all. No, the nonsense of team locations in the tri-state area continues unabated. Without a doubt, some of Brooklyn's most beautiful and historic areas will fall victim to the rapid influx of bridge-and-tunnel meatheads and their demand for overpriced sports/titty bars and SUV parking.
I guess it was a stretch to assume that Bruce Ratner of all people would have the decency to ditch Frank on principle alone. Gehry's "design ability" is in the gutter (it didn't start there?) and leads me to surmise that he too is riding on a wave of past successes and can no longer hack it.
Swing and a miss frankey-boy.
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