Monday, August 5, 2013

On This Day In History, August 5th: Tullio Campagnolo Invents The Helment Mirror

Big news out of Bloomfield Hills:



Note the unpaved road surface:


If only people back then had had access to dedicated gravel bikes, then perhaps they wouldn't have needed cars and bicycles would be the dominant form of private transportation in America today.

Meanwhile, here in New York City, David Dubinsky's bicycle was stolen, which will greatly complicate his gefilte fish runs:


I wonder if he had a handmade artisanal gefilte fish porteur rack.  Probably not.  See, things were simpler back then (at least I'm assuming the were, since I wasn't even remotely alive yet), when the hot topic was "three-speed gears and scissor brakes," and when "post-ride recovery" meant slurping down a bowl of won ton soup:

But besides shopping for his wife, Mr. Dubinsky likes to cycle from his lower Fifth Avenue residence to Central Park on sundays to rendezvous with other bicycle enthusiasts.  They discuss such things as three-speed gears and scissor brakes, and then Mr. Dubinsky pedals homeward, usually with a stop for a bowl of won ton soup.

Also, as I understand it, in those days you had these things called "neighborhoods" where different kinds of people lived, and if you wanted to eat a certain kind of food you went to that neighborhood and bought it from them.  Now, all the neighborhoods are indistinguishable from each other thanks to rampant gentrification, and your biggest decision is essentially which irreverently painted food truck to patronize:



There's a lot to love about Brooklyn, but perhaps its greatest strength is its growing cultural diversity.

By the way, nothing brightens my day like a new
time-traveling t-shirt-wearing retro-Fred from the planet Tridork Bret sighting, such as this one recently forwarded to me by a reader:

(Bret breathing down your neck.)

But the next person who emails me to tell me that Bret makes an ironic cameo in the Workcycles ad in the right hand margin is getting kicked in the scranus:


It shouldn't bother me so much that people don't think I'm in on the joke, but it does.

Anyway, back to the food trucks.  Let's say you and your date want to ride your bike to a food truck so the people you priced out of the neighborhood can serve you their local cuisine.  And let's just say your date doesn't own a bike because all the local bike shop carried was gravel bikes, and there's no bike share program  in your neighborhood because rabid Dorothy Rabinowitz types have successfully cowed your local all-powerful bike lobby away with their vagina dentatas (or vaginae dentatum, or whatever the correct plural of vagina dentata is).  

Well, now there's the Companion Bike Seat, the seat for people who like to ride their bikes with companions:


The inventors of the Companion Bike Seat asked me to share it with you, and that's what I'm doing.  However, I'm doing it only for two reasons: 1) I like the video, and 2) I want to totally piss off the King of Park Slope, who scoffs at the Companion Bike Seat because he doesn't need any special equipment to portage not one but two fetching nonprofit attorneys back to his cooperative apartment for a nightcap:


What followed this ride was a night of wine, spooning, and spirited conversation about the pros and cons of rent regulation that none of them will soon forget.

Lastly, American bicycle advocates are always looking to Amsterdam and Copenhagen for inspiration, but perhaps we should now look to Penang, where they've unveiled a bike lane that stretches for almost one hundred feet:



Presumably they'll follow this with a bike share system that allows you to use the bikes for 30 seconds at a time.

127 comments:

samh said...

AYHSMB

Anonymous said...

Podium?

Anonymous said...

Nice!

ChamoisJuice said...

First you get the Juice -
Then you get the Power -
Then you get the Women.........

balls™ said...

NO COMMENT.

Blob Dobbs said...

That's almost short as Jersey City's bike lane.

Spokey said...

scranus

I've been hitting refresh for 20 minutes and all I get to do is lie in front of the podi

Anonymous said...

top 10

Devlin McGrabbin said...

When you want cattle,

you take the cattle.

When you want food,

you take the food.

When you want a woman...

you just take the woman.

leroy said...

Very informative post today.

Here's what I learned this weekend:

You cannot nap on a road trip when your dog is driving and singing his mash-up of “I Can’t Drive 55” and “Jesus Take the Wheel.”

Tullio Campagnolo never had to consider that.

television_writer said...

you and your date

The boy bike geeks subscribed to your blog don't know what a date is unless it was a cat6 bike ride?

Robot stack failure.

crosspalms said...

I want to see Bret in all the ads, especially the blinky one.

Kenny said...

I was out riding my bike, wearing my bicycling costume, when I thought of a great new idea:

GEARED FIXIES!

All the ease of shifting to easy gears for hills, but all the trouble of never being able to coast, too!

babble on said...

Goooood monday!

Matt said...

Damn, I read it AND watched the videos AND read the old King of Park slope thing from 2010. I'm just not competitive enough.

I do want to see the video when Sean opens up those warm Cokes that have been jostling around in the bike seat. Perhaps he can use his watch cap to mop up the mess.

9719 asttone

Marcel Da Chump said...

Bike lox for gefilte fish runs.

Regular guy said...

Detroit wouldn't be in the mess they're in now if they'd stuck with bikes and horse buggies.

There is no way "Sean", "Shawn" or whoever, fit that picnic spread in the compartment under the companion seat. And if he did, his companion's hot little patootie would have melted the cheese.

RoadQueen said...

Shouldn't have read it first. I would have been #1.

Damn it.

Congrats samh! Also, I don't like the Companion Seat. That's ehy they make tandems. Make that hootchie pedal her own tail around.

Just my .02

Anonymous said...

Tep twonty Cleveland Yeah!

Comment deleted said...

Bret is about to pass you temporally, as well as spatially.

Whoa.

McFly said...

If all you have to do is gently pat something with your hand and it makes that blonde climb on it then why would you not pat your man unit? It's simple science/physics/perversion. Sean/Shawn/Shaun is a dumbass.

Anonymous said...

The companion bike seat link is a riot. Love how all the pictures show hementless riders and at the bottom of the page is the ironic, "Always wear a helmet" in large letters.

hipsters are so funny when they live somewhere else.

leroy said...

Those crazy thrill seekers on the Companion Bike Seat aren't wearing Helments.

Discuss.

(Actually don't discuss.)

leroy said...

Ooops, too late.

Oh the Helmentless Humanity.

babble on said...

Ok, so I need a magic companion seat, too. How the FUCK did he fit that huge spread of a picnic into the tiny little box under that seat?!?

Regular guy said...

Another thing, I liked how Shawn stayed on his best date behavior and didn't hurl expletives at the guy in the Econoline pick up who turned in front of him. Would have completely spoiled the mood.

Anonymous said...

My girlfriend went to Panang and all I got was this shitty bikelane.

JB said...

Those bikes in 1925 had freewheels. Let's have Bret go back and buy them and deliver them to hipsters.

datessas
=
date's ass

DATE SASS

Anonymous said...

Professor Tilford examines the strange phenomenon of half-wheeling. Are you a half-wheeler?

Anonymous said...

“GEARED FIXIES!”

It’s been done.

1930’s version:
http://velobase.com/ViewComponent.aspx?ID=5D40E736-C6EF-48B3-B023-40695FA0B6F8&Enum=121&AbsPos=5

Current version:
http://www.sturmey-archer.com/products/hubs/cid/3/id/47.html

Spokey said...

babs;

I noticed that spread as well. After careful investigation I found that it is not a magic companion seat but a tardis companion seat.

Nathan said...

Great Lob Almighty, Snob. Could your raging gravel-boner be any more obvious? You've been going on about gravel bikes for over a week now. Just give in to your poorly hidden dirt-lust and come to MN next year for the Almanzo 100. It's free, and maybe you could get the sponsors to buy your plane ticket. You don't even need a gravel bike, though you could probably borrow one here if only a gravel bike will sate your not-so-secret, unholy desires.

Vernal Magina said...

http://deadspin.com/cyclist-cramps-up-during-interview-hilarity-ensues-1030345464

Vernal Magina said...

... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsdDlvcIrns

Anonymous said...

Never mind the picnic, how does the companion seat cope with the rear suspension?

Mr Plow said...

So where can I buy one of these gifilte fish bikes I've been hearing so much about?

DUBI NSKY

streepo said...

Hey WCRM,
Did you know that Bret makes an ironic cameo in the Workcycles ad in the right hand margin?

scranus

Anonymous said...

RE: fish bikes. Remember, it's the gelatinous stuff/goo/gack in the gefilte fish containers that will really mess up your shifting.

Would have podiumed (?) but I had to have that boil removed from my scranus.

Anonymous said...

One of the few lessons about women I learned at an early-ish age (15) was never cat 6 race your date. They don't find it attractive

A lesson I learned much later is: if a girl is getting dropped on a group ride, some of them find a push up a hill to be quite chivalrous. But no grab ass unless you're Peter Sagan.

Serial Retrogrouch said...

something weird about bret in that mirror... it looks like he's about to slice the bike rider in half...

Anne Actriss said...

Sean

I thought I told you

I don't have a bike.

Help

I've fallen

and I can't get up.


TLLR
EFCT

Anonymous said...

Babble@1:32,

Sean was hoping the tiny little box was ON the seat.

BaDaBoom

HAL 9000 said...

Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do. I'm half crazy all for the love of you. It won't be a stylish marriage, I can't afford a carriage. But you'll look sweet upon the seat of a bicycle built for two.

JB said...

The prize in the companion seat vid is the roommate. Not sure why, but she's "more fun."

BamaPhred said...

Namaste.

I must admit to gravel bike lust myself.

Some may disagree, but viewing Bret in your Fred mirror isn't as terrifying as seeing the grill of a SUV bearing down on you.

Big Looser said...

at least I'm assuming the were,

Assuming they were?
Assuming the worst?
Assuming the wurst?

Freddy Murcks said...

The acting in that Companion Seat video was about as good as the acting in a typical porno, or so I have been told. The only things lacking were gratuitous nudity and lots of the old in-out. Oh, and helments. They weren't wearing helments!! It's a good thing the children didn't see that.

upandn 35

JB said...

Freddy Murcks: no protection in porn either, so I'm told.

Regular guy said...

I must agree with JB, Shawn's companion's roommate is the true hottie. V-neck t-shirt, sharp practical mind. I bet if she didn't have a bike of her own she would at least try to borrow one, because she wouldn't want some helmentless wanker weaving her in and around traffic.

Prole Bike Threat said...

Objects in mirror are Bretter than they appear

ChamoisJuice said...

Well, today's post is boring, so I am going to talk about Australia instead.

Last week, ce was trying to tell me knew knows more about the plight of the aborigine's than I do, despite the fact he has not read "Guns, Germs, & Steel"

The book attempts to explain why Eurasian civilizations (including North Africa) have survived and conquered others, while arguing against the idea that Eurasian hegemony is due to any form of Eurasian intellectual, moral or inherent genetic superiority.
Diamond argues that the gaps in power and technology between human societies originate in environmental differences, which are amplified by various positive feedback loops. When cultural or genetic differences have favored Eurasians (for example, written language or the development among Eurasians of resistance to endemic diseases), he asserts that these advantages occurred because of the influence of geography on societies and cultures, and were not inherent in the Eurasian genomes.


Have you ever wondered how one ethnicity rules most of the world, pioneered metals, internal combustion, put men on the moon, while others' greatest contributions to humanity are the digeridoo and the boomarang?

Diamond argues that this is 100% nurture, and in NO WAY genetic.

Diamond's second book, Collapse, features Australia prominently. It's about human societies that have failed, why they failed, and what lessons we can learn from that. Something about wildfires, water shortables, reliance on trade for food....
'Collapse': How the World Ends

DerZoots said...

HEY KENNY!!!!!!!!!!!

They DO make a multispeed fixed style gear system.
Those kooky folks at Sturmey Archer decided to revive a product which had a short lifespan but was large in lore thanks to the Sheldon Brown pages.
The current iteration is the S3X 3 speed internal fixed gear hub.
So there you go. Sometimes funny comments have sad realities.


Robot Intelligence Testing Screen: 11 ucedusp

BamaPhred said...

1925 Bike Film. I wonder what Mrs Warren S Booth said when she sat on her bike seat. Decorum and mixed company prevent me from speculating.

Mr Plow said...

I had the chance to visit an all recumbent bike shop and try 5 different bikes. I'll admit they are super fun going down hill. But hideously slow up hill. Or it could just be that I suck. (At life). I think ill hold off until they come out with a gravel 'bent before I get one.

leroy said...

Well I'll be durned.

My dog was right.

CJ really doesn't come here for the hunting.

I owe my dog $5.

Udder said...

Regarding your flight to Australia, choose your seat wisely. If you can't afford business class, be sure to get an exit row or bulkhead, preferably away from the restrooms. Don't underestimate how long and tiring this flight is. Ambien is your friend...

Regarding Australia itself, it sucks. It's just like Canada (only upside down)– nice but annoying dull people wearing dated clothes, living in ugly homes, wishing they lived in the US.

Anonymous said...

Hey WCRM I'm not sure if you've noticed but the cycling Fred guy in the yellow jersey is actually in one of the ads on the right hand side of your website

ChamoisJuice said...

Udder:
Australia is to New Zealand
as
America is to Canada.


What part of New Zealand do they keep the Newfies in?

The smaller country is nearly identical to the larger in every way. Both countries get really offended if confused for one another.

Clearly, America and South Africa should have the most White Guilt of any of the British Colonies. I'm not sure who has the cleaner conscience, Canada or Australia?

JB said...

Unsubscribe

Jimboner said...

I rode my bike for 5 months all around NZ back in the 90's. The south island was populated by more sheep than people. Seems they had all emigrated to Oz to find work. Sometimes I wouldn't see a soul for days. Can't imagine that much has changed, also if you go there don't drink Speights it is piss.

Anonymous said...

None of you ignorant Americans or apathetic Europeans know which country Penang is in, do you?

If you did know, you'd understand that a 30 metre bike lane takes you from one side of the city to the other.

No wonder western culture is dying.

crosspalms said...

"nice but annoying dull people wearing dated clothes, living in ugly homes, wishing they lived in the US."

Sounds like Florida

wishiwasmerckx said...

That Penang...it's no Panang. It's just like Singapore without all the spitting on the sidewalk.

wishiwasmerckx said...

If CJ has read either of those books, I'll eat a bug.

Anonymous said...

She better hang on tight, he looks a little shaky.

wishiwasmerckx said...

The beginning of the 1925 ride looked sorta like a tweed triathlon, what with all the weaving and going off in every direction.

wishiwasmerckx said...

Freddy, the first thing I thought of when I heard that stilted dialogue was typical porn, but I did not want to out myself by acknowledging that I recognized the genre.

ChamoisJuice said...

Wishiwasmerckx is EXACTLY the type of asexual pansy roadie that would be ashamed to admit they look at porn.

NEWSFLASH!
Everyone looks at porn!
Everyone jacks or jills off! Everyone hates roadies!
You cannot find a decent loaf of rye bread in Seattle for love or money.

babble on said...


The Tardis companion seat is actually a hot-box magnet, so Shawn has all the helmet he needs right there in his pants. He takes her home, they have dinner and a glass of wine with the hot room-mate and when he pats his helmeted manhood? PRESTO!! All the hot boxes in the vicinity climb on for a ride.

That's the happily ever after bit implicit in the film. You just have to read between the lines.

babble on said...

OMG I love my life!!

Bountiful bikecycling, childhood besties, babeliscious boys and a bit of booze under August's cerulean blue skies...
oh! and snob and you crew, too. :D It's sooo good here.

Tracy Chapman was right. Heaven is here on Earth. Every so often I catch a wee glimpse of it.

Too bad we're so hell bent on destroying it.

Serial Retrogrouch said...

babs, speak for yourself...
i'm saving the planet by riding my bike every day... and now i'll get the companion seat and save some sweet ass too... and while i'm at it, i'll get some gefilte fish and solve world hunger. done, done and done... tomorrow.

i can't get my ass off my chair today after cycling to montreal.

wishiwasmerckx said...

CJ, it's not about one's porn viewing habits, buffing the helmet, or whatever else consensual adults do behind closed doors. It is about the restraint to avoid making others uncomfortable by oversharing.

In the circles in which I travel, it is not called an asexual pansy roadie, it is called being a perfect gentleman and a man of discretion.

I do not expect you to understand, as I realize that this concept is completely foreign to you.

wishiwasmerckx said...

Oh, and everyone does not hate me. My dog loves me. Everyone else hates me.

Regular guy said...

Thanks for the x-rated part two of the companion seat video. But I just don't think it is plausible. Or does Shawn really have it? I'm terrible at reading between the lines.

Spokey said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Spokey said...

babs, sr

No need to save the earth. we won't / can't destroy it. Unless some of you are asteroids of course.

I'm more concerned with saving myself and perhaps even my fellow snobbers. Particularly given I can't find anywhere else to call home. Perhaps riding my biek will help with saving ourselves. The big round ball of mud can take care of itself.

NO COMMENT. said...

balls™

Dooth said...

My heart goes out to Mr.Dubinsky. Mrs.D must've given him an earful..."where's my fish!"

Anonymous said...

Magic.

He his it under his douchey wool cap. He's clearly got nothing else under there.

Yarpo said...

samh! Finding his Cavendish-ian form again! Congrats.

Computer-free for a week because it (the computer) was sick and had to go to the doctor. I have a whole week to catch up on. I better get to work here.

Meh!

Anonymous said...

Or maybe he hid it in her little box...

babble on said...

CJ - are you fucking kidding me? Clean conscience???? You are a perfect example of the preponderance of mass brainwashing at work in North America today.

Pay attention.

Canada has perpetrated many crimes against humanity, an unacknowledged holocaust which continues in many ways to this day. The historical evidence is only beginning to come to light, but the really scary thing is the way a few select individuals continue to profit by sucking Canada's abundant natural resources dry and destroying everything in their wake, leaving absolutely nothing for future generations.

Fuck. Now I need to get back on my bike.

babble on said...

Grouch - how far a ride is it for you? Jeepers. I look forward to the day I can say I rode to Montreal.

McFly said...

Dang babble.....sucking natural resources dry.......you make it sound so sexy.

JC said...

I'd think twice about lifting a bike that was begrimed with gefilte fish residue, it would remind me too much of a sexual conquest by that sad but annoying person.

Anonymous said...

So, the bike seat thingy was invented by friends of friends. I was asked to more or less "spread the word," but didn't post in here in light of them being the archetypical San Francisco newbie bicycle kickstarter types.

On another note, if you feel like pitching the rest of your evening away, click here and here.

Anonymous said...

Hey Serial Retrogrouch,

How was Montreal??

Anonymous said...

Wasn't it Belinda Carlisle rather than Tracey Chapman, miss Babble? Heaven is a place on Earth.... allegedly...

And there I was trying to remember Latin. Vaginae dentatum as a plural?

(it has been about 30 years since I had any educational meeting with the language)

hey nonny mouse

Anonymous said...

CJ, nice synopsis: next time don't cut and paste from Wikipedia. If I want a reductionist view of the effect of environment on culture development, I'll just go back to Leslie White.

Babble, I lust you dearly, but all cultures exploit others and resources to the best of their ability; we have just have made a bigger impact through technology. A case in point is that representative of a noble pastoral society, Genghis Khan, who is the direct ancestor of around 1 in every 200 men. There is enough blame for all humans societies, we are just the latest, biggest fuck-ups.

ChamoisJuice said...

Babble, I said cleaner conscience.

Do you feel Canada has done less wrong than the states? What with slavery, trying to conquer canada in war of 1812, successfully conquering part of mexico, chinese railroads, trail of tears, etc, etc.
I am American, so I don't know anything about canadian history except when we fought. Is there a Zinn's People's History of Canada?

How about South Africa. Canada more or less just country?

How about Australia?

leroy said...

Oh dear.

My dog informs me that a bear is about to sneak up behind CJ.

He advises that we don't want to watch.

I think I'll take his word for it.

JDH said...

I love it when you're mad babble!

Anonymous said...

You need to give the Malaysians a break -- eventually they'll have the 30km bike lane -- their first ever. In the meantime, the short sections are testing materials. If you were putting down lanes on a tropical island you'd want to make sure the markings will stick around through a rainy season or two. I think it's cool to see "developing" countries, especially one with a very high number of Mslm women, promoting bikes for everyone!

Yikes --my word verification is implying either "sentient" or "sensitive", neither of which applies to this blog!

ChamoisJuice said...

Anonymous 7:57 PM said...

Diamond says Europeans and Asians won , not because of genetic reasons, but because they lived in places with more natural resources.
Better neighborhood = better person, very NYC.

200,000 years ago homo sapians in Africa. Man lives as nomadic Hunter gatherers for 190,000 years, spreading all over the earth from Africa.
10,000 ago, herding, then 7,000 farming in fertile crescent. This is first major technology. Animals were first vehicles and power tools, also tech. Allows people to own more than they can carry. People accumulate more than others. Force others to work for them. Money, math, specialized professions follow and on and on.
Farming is first step.

Middle East had most variety of edible plants, fertile soil, that's why they did it first.

Basically a people's success boiled down to:
-what domesticable plants and animals are native to your area.
-A head start.
-Ease of trade with other people. Trade crops, stock, ideas. Europe-Asia is east to west, can travel without drastic climate changes. Africa cut in half by desert, Americas by narrow, jungle C.A.

Europe had cows, oxen goats, potatoes, wheat, ducks, etc.
Asia had horses, pigs, chickens, rice.

Africa has huge animals, but they are mean and untamable. Likewise, few of their plants domesticate.
The americas had corn, yams, turkeys but no good pack of food stock. Llama is best native work animal, those weird giant guinea pigs were best thing to eat in S.A. before conquistadors came.

Diamond's argument is that Australia is so poor a place to live, it explains why the aborigines did not progress past hunter gatherer.

Anonymous said...

CJ, better, but Diamond is still simplistic and reductionist. His arguments are the cultural equivalent of stating humans are the inevitable result of particular set of evolutionary pressures. You start with today and work your backwards, any difference can be ascribed to factors that support you argument. Why did we become bipedal? Which of the environmentally derived arguments is correct?

Anonymous said...

Marijuana is a domesticable plant

Angie Kritenbrink said...

I think someone had that idea and its been reported on in this blog. (For realsies)

Anonymous said...

I Oz they hunted Abos for dogfood..

Angie Kritenbrink said...

As a woman, that box looks pretty uncomfortable to sit on. It looks like something Carlos Danger would want his girls to use on the Citibike so their knees were spread as far apart as possible.

( •_•)O*¯`·.¸.·´¯`°Q(•_• ) said...

http://www.fredhoogervorst.com/oni.app/local/upload/03096997db.jpg

BoozyBogan said...

Chamois Juice 12:20 02AUG, I haven't read that particular book, and while it sounds interesting I doubt it will offer a much greater awareness of the history and current plight of Aboriginal Australians than what I already have. I gave the example of the popularity of Aussie Rules among Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory as it poignantly highlights your cluelessness when you said:

"Oh Jeez. Not that ol' white kid delusion: Oh, Lacrosse / rugby / aussie rules football is SOO badass. Toughest manliest sport ever.
Why don't you let any poor people or minorities play??? Like fencing, an upper class exclusive sport, that let's pampered kids pretend they're tough."

Then you said:

"How tough can a sport really be, if it's not as tough as Rugby, which is played at the highest level by small, pretentious colleges?"
"John McPhee had a very amusing piece in the New Yorker recently about the rising popularity of lacrosse, it's spread west, and it's move out of the private school exclusivity."

You seem to be unaware of the difference between Rugby League and Rugby Union. In Australia, Union is stereotypically the private school game. League, like AFL are characteristically working class games and were so throughout the 20th century - not some recent phenomenon as in your Lacrosse example.

You may well argue that AFL isn't as "tough" as League if you like, whatever that means, they are different games. When Jase 4:54 said: "Cameron Ling would crush your dumb neck", he didn't say that Cameron Ling wasn't a goofy looking bloodnut, he just said that this particular goofy looking bloodnut could crush your dumb neck. I suspect he is right.

Then:

"I will admit that I don't know that much about australian rules football and rugby. They are sports not unlike cycling: followed only by participants."

Followed only by participants! You've obviously never been to a game at the MCG. In the '70s before they had to reduce capacity for safety reasons they'd get crowds of over 120 000. I remember our neighbour, a very elderly lady, who had Hawthorn Hawks memorabilia plastered all over her kitchen wall and around the lounge room. My grandpa probably kicked a footy around as a kid, but didn't play as an adult and yet was a Collingwood Magpies supporter. He gave me a Magpies scarf. The other AFL (VFL) scarf I had was from my grandma - from Sydney! Born and bred. She was a mad North Melbourne Kangaroos supporter, I doubt she ever missed a game on the telly.

Bear in mind, that while I've lived equal parts in Vic and NSW, lived around both codes of footy and had a bit of a kick at the various STATE schools I attended, I have never really taken an interest in either, but I'm compelled to say something because you are so far off the mark.

The Back Marker said...

Angie

What? Does that thing vibrate too?

Nacnud said...

Re BoozyBogan @ 10:08 PM
All I can say is:
CARN THE 'PIES!

leroy said...

Well as long as we're cutting and pasting, which is after all the intellectual equivalent of scrap-booking, we might as well get back on topic.

Mr. Dubinsky, whose bike was stolen while on a gefilte fish run, was the former President of the International Ladies Garment Workers union. He died in 1982 at age 90. He was quite a guy; even his obituary makes me jealous.

He was a lifelong cyclist who emigrated to the United States in 1911. He enjoyed riding around NYC at all hours and did not get a drivers' license until age 65.

From his NYT obituary:

"With extraordinary flair and boundless energy, Mr. Dubinsky was the major force in converting a union that was on the verge of bankruptcy in 1932 into a dynamic organization that had $500 million in assets in 1966, when he became its honorary president.
...

The influence of Mr. Dubinsky, a short man with gray crew-cut hair, extended well beyond his union. He played a major role in the formation of the Committee for Industrial Organization, forerunner of the Congress of Industrial Organizations, in the mid-1930's; he was the first head of an American Federation of Labor union to demand action against organized racketeering in unions; he pushed labor toward greater social responsibility, and he was for many years one of the forces behind the Liberal Party in New York.

Mr. Dubinsky, whose personality was once described as ranging from ''that of global statesman to that of a dead-end kid,'' was sometimes captious, sometimes overbearing, but always able to bring high drama into every report and talk.

He never lost his Yiddish accent, his tendency to wave his arms at the slightest provocation or his loud voice, which started as a shout and went up from there.
...

He was proud of his accomplishments, and he would talk about them whether he was bicycle riding around New York wearing a distinctive beret, as he often did, or assaulting huge baskets of onion rolls, highly spiced pickles, marinated herring and pastrami, washed down with Scotch or rum.

...

His school days ended, however, when he was 13 years old, and the following year he became a master baker in his father's shop, earning 12 rubles a week, about $6. Out of that sum he would take small coins for half-hour bicycle rides in a dusty park area. He was to enjoy bicycle riding all his life and would ride around various parts of the city at all hours. He did not get an automobile driver's license until he was 65.

Link to obit here. Worth a look.

Comment deleted said...

Nice slice of NY history, Leroy. Thank you.

paulb said...

From Murray Kempton's The Sorehead, November 1952: "The difference between me and the General [Eisenhower] is that I may be just and I may be fair, but I sure ain’t friendly. David Dubinsky can go ahead and call up Winthrop Aldrich any time he chooses."

Kempton also rode around NYC on a bike. Maybe he made gefilte fish runs with Dubinsky!

paulb said...

I miss gravel driveways. I'm not interested in riding a bike across one. Is there a good restaurant with a quiet rural setting within convenient driving distance of NYC that has a gravel driveway, where at the end of the meal you leave the restaurant into cool night air and crunch across the gravel to the car? Go ahead and make fun of me all you want.

leroy said...

Mr. Dubinsky appears in Hendrik Hertzberg's 1970 New Yorker piece about what may be NYC's first bike to work ride in which then Mayor Lindsay participated. Definitely worth a read. Link is here

Mr. Dubinksy received his first bike in 1937, a gift from his union. Before that, he rented.

leroy said...

paulb --

Blue Hill Stone Barns.

A little pricey, but worth it.

Link here

leroy said...

Screwed up link to Hertzberg article re NYC 1970 bike to work ride.

Link should be here

The King of Park Slope said...

Then they made me breakfast.

babble on said...

Leroy, you're a super-star. Thank you. xo

CJ - your trail of tears is history. We have a highway of tears here and it's still disappearing people.

McFly said...

If this was Godzilla he would not be dicking around so much.

McFly said...

Well crap. I was attempting to post a video of a bus crushing the rear wheel of a Magna in Japan/China/Korea/Somewhere in Asia.

ce said...

BoozyBogan, get out of the bin! There has been well and truly enough talk about football scarves around here lately without you dragging that comment back out.

Stay focused people. We are here to discuss scranus and that which relates to scranus - for example, bicycles.

Speaking of maintaining high standards, I'd like to see Rocko issue a style diktat, stating all advertisements must feature the image of either Bret or Recumbabe if they are to be considered for inclusion beside the blog. Also, they must all flash obnoxiously... I mean... flamboyantly! Flash flamboyantly, just like Cipo, something, something. You get the idea.

Having said all that, I don't rely on advertising revenue to buy food for 17 hungry kids.

RoadQueen said...

I'm still chuckling over the fact that someone "brainstormed" a bicycle bitch seat.

I wonder if the guy is a health/environmentally conscious biker? Makes one wonder.

Parracy 36

RoadQueen said...

BICH SEAT

Just sayin'.

Anonymous said...

Funny thing about that Bike Lane in Panang is that it took 24 hours from when it was proposed to when it was unveiled. Here it takes 24 Years.

paulb said...

Thanks for the restaurant idea, Leroy, and for the Hertzberg post. Has he really been associated with the magazine for that long? Yikes! On a NYer podcast last year he traced tension between NYPD and bike riders to Critical Mass activity during the GOP convention, 2004.

I wonder if Dubinsky's grandchildren shook their heads whenever "crazy old grandpa" got on his bike. I bought an old Sandy-damaged open-frame Raleigh Sports a few months ago, and I don't think a better city bike has been made. Dubinsky and Kempton and Hertzberg got it right.

And the beret... Moishe's Bakery on Grand Street has, or used to have, a senior citizen customer who could be DD's doppelganger, from the description, pushing a shopping cart, sporting a black beret, bantering away in Yiddish. He was exiting the store while I was ordering a few black and white cookies and some chocolate babka and he shouted back at me, "Ya got good taste, kid!"

McFly said...

Nailed it?

Anonymous said...

This is what happens when Snob's posts are shortish and not-too-good. Comments wander off into everyone's version of "look at me."

ce said...

Anon 10:18, no, we do that after the good posts too.

Freddy Murcks said...

Why are you people engaging with CJ? He's a dipshit who equates the ability to cut and paste with erudition. If we just ignore him, he will eventually get bored and go away. Please, people. Please!!!!

150 edbyrg

Jed said...

I told you not to look at me!!!!!

Dennis Hopper
Blue Velvet

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Anonymous said...

Catching up. Blondie's voice is like broken glass. Definitely the roommate.

Bike Tinker said...

Geared Fixieses!
http://www.biketinker.com/2011/projects/s3x-in-the-woods/