The Best Birthday Present



A

Andy Gee

Guest
I would like to thank everyone who replied to my recent post about
bikes, gas, health, and money. It was around my birthday and I was very
depressed thinking that i just couldn't articulate my position.

First, I'd like to say that it's good to see that there is still some
civility and productivity on Usenet! I had despaired of ever seeing it
again; most of my groups from years ago had been taken over by spam,
proselytizers, flamers, dominance struggles, and internecine warfare.
Second, I'd like to thank whoever used the phrase "mug's game." It's
just so more concise and expressive than "sucker's game." Also, i'm
glad to see that not only are there plenty of bike commuters, there are
also happy car-free folks as well.

Here's what I learned:

A lot of people here, like me, "need" a good shot of biking before work
to "feel normal." do we need a 12-step program?

Next, not only am I articulate with respect to my position, but many
people on the group had already done some previous serious thinking
about stopping the redistribution of wealth from cyclists to drivers.
Going even deeper into the issue of efficient transportation, people had
already given thought to electrifying diesel rail lines and roads.

I would have thought that advocacy for efficiency and health and against
waste would be a common citizen's duty. But I learned a whole new angle
I never would have thought of. it seems there is an "us" and a "them"
and of course "us" would commute by bike, but "them" would just never
conceive of it as a thing which can be done. In normal times, an us is
free to accumulate wealth via efficiency relative to a typical them. In
emergency times, the bottom edge of them may not be able to handle an
extra $50 or $100 a month in fuel costs; reposessions may take place,
things may fall apart. Some thems may discover they are really an us,
but even more of us may use their accumulated wealth to buy the
reposessed goods of them and generally improve our prospects; a natural
selection sort of thing.
Some people even identify a condition in which a female them would not
seek to mate with a male them, although any male us seems to be ready to
mate with a female them. I find that female thems are eager to enter
pre-mating rituals with an alpha us, but i have no data about actual
mating and bonding.
If we look at ourselves in full kit, something interesting emerges.
Padded compression shorts and toe-clip shoes, wild colors on a jersey,
crested, ventilated, airstream, visored helmets, a camel pack, and
especially a third-eye mirror give us a not-quite-human appearance.
Could we be in the process of speciating?

Anyway, thanks again for the present!


--ag
 
In article <[email protected]>,
Andy Gee <[email protected]> writes:

....

> I would have thought that advocacy for efficiency and health and against
> waste would be a common citizen's duty.


I perceive two kinds of advocacy with respect to cycling.

One kind involves trying to influence individuals to ride
instead of drive, and persuading governments to install
what are hoped to be "cycling-friendly" special facilities,
such as bike lanes.

The other kind involves preserving and expanding what rights,
facilities, etc we automatically already have in our collective
favour, and preventing their erosion by other interest groups.

Personally I find the former kind hard to accomplish without
my coming off officiously and turning people off; I lack the
particular talent required for such an undertaking. Besides,
I'd rather have bike lanes applied tactically rather than
strategically -- stick 'em where they're needed,
if they're needed. I'm against slap-dashing them /everywhere/
just to assert some sort of "legitimacy" of bicycles on the road.

With the latter kind you can step over the heads of the common
citizens, and go straight to the local government to get what ya
want :)

I suppose both approaches can be successfully combined to an extent.

As for getting people out of their cars and onto bikes: I've come
to the opinion that those who would cycle will gravitate toward
cycling sooner or later anyway. Those who won't ... won't.

....

> Some people even identify a condition in which a female them would not
> seek to mate with a male them, although any male us seems to be ready to
> mate with a female them.


I think I've reached a time in my life where I'd rather
just ride my bike. It's less work.


cheers,
Tom

--
-- Nothing is safe from me.
Above address is just a spam midden.
I'm really at: tkeats [curlicue] vcn [point] bc [point] ca
 
"Andy Gee" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...

> If we look at ourselves in full kit, something interesting emerges.
> Padded compression shorts and toe-clip shoes, wild colors on a jersey,
> crested, ventilated, airstream, visored helmets, a camel pack, and
> especially a third-eye mirror give us a not-quite-human appearance.
> Could we be in the process of speciating?
>


Well I most certainly prefer the male of the species who enjoys cycling over
the male of petrol-headed-tosspot species anyday ;-)

I find the male who enjoys cycling tends to have a much more aesthetically
pleasing rear end than one of the petrol-headed-tosspot males, who tend not
to have aesthetically pleasing rears - probably down to the amount of time
they spend sitting on their arses with no muscular movement of said arses..

Cheers, helen s



> Anyway, thanks again for the present!
>
>
> --ag
 
"wafflycat" <waffles*A*T*v21net*D*O*T*co*D*O*T*uk> wrote in
news:[email protected]:

>>

>
> Well I most certainly prefer the male of the species who enjoys
> cycling over the male of petrol-headed-tosspot species anyday ;-)
>
> I find the male who enjoys cycling tends to have a much more
> aesthetically pleasing rear end than one of the petrol-headed-tosspot
> males, who tend not to have aesthetically pleasing rears - probably
> down to the amount of time they spend sitting on their arses with no
> muscular movement of said arses..
>
> Cheers, helen s
>
>
>


Okay, so you go into the database as a speciation event, and an important
one at that. Sexual selection is generally controlled by the female of
most species.

Also, I guess I can see women cyclists as part of that category of strong,
self-assured women who obviously don't need a big male for protection and
therefore don't get asked out at a level comensurate with their obvious
physical appeal, but i don't have much data on that.
 
"Andy Gee" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
>
> Okay, so you go into the database as a speciation event, and an important
> one at that. Sexual selection is generally controlled by the female of
> most species.
>
> Also, I guess I can see women cyclists as part of that category of strong,
> self-assured women who obviously don't need a big male for protection and
> therefore don't get asked out at a level comensurate with their obvious
> physical appeal, but i don't have much data on that.
>
>


I'm also a woman driver and a woman pedestrian.

Cheers, helen s
 

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