So, after considerable research into the “Greg Evans Diet Plan“, there has been a slight revision. Instead of subsisting solely on pie for an entire week each month, the new plan calls for dedicating just one day each month to pie-eating exclusivity.
This day shall, of course, be known as Pie Day. This is not to be confused with Pi Day, which just happens to coincide with my birthday. The annual triumvirate of these occasions (Pie Day, my birthday, and Pi Day) shall cause the festivities to be expanded into Pie Week, out of honor, respect, and appreciation for pie, pi, and the esteemed founder of Pie Day, yours truly.
I am confident that Pie Day observances will meet with much greater success than my previous failed, discredited, and subsequently abandoned research into ‘Beer Day’, ‘Vodka Day’, ‘Rum Day’, and the always exciting ‘Tequila Day’.
Stop with all the “Tour de Here” and the “Tour d’There“. It’s not cute, clever, or Continental. It’s stupid.
Seriously, cut it out.
I haven’t posted about this years Tour de France, partially because I’ve been trying to get a handle on my feelings about the whole Operation Puerto debacle. I will say this; at least the sport of cycling is stepping up and actually doing something about the drug cheats, unlike some sports (baseball, football, etc.)
Anyway, the events of the last few days won’t allow me to keep my silence. I’ve never been a big fan of Floyd Landis, I don’t know why. Perhaps his quiet Mennonite ways were lost on me. That has changed in a big way.
First there was the restraint he showed after stage 13, dealing with all of the second guessing and nay-saying when his team allowed a breakaway to gain nearly 30 minutes, relinquishing the yellow jersey in the process. He regained the jersey with an impressive ride on stage 15’s climb of L’Alpe d’Huez.
Then there was the remarkable grace and class he showed when answering the media’s questions after stage 16 when he imploded, lost 10 minutes, the yellow jersey, and, most thought, any chance of winning le Tour.
Then came stage 17: No one would have blamed him if he had abandoned after the way he suffered on the last climb of stage 16, but Floyd had other ideas. In one of the most spectacular displays in recent Tour history, Floyd attacked 128k from the finish, gradually picked up and dropped the 11 breakaway riders ahead and soloed on for the stage win, erasing all but 30 seconds of his deficit and any doubts as to the depth of his character. This was truly the stuff of legends.
Allez Floyd! Allez!
As a follow-up to my previous post, I’m reprinting this article from the Cincinnati Enquirer. Thanks for the link, Jon.
A sunny Sunday morning, a straight, flat road and a group of enthusiastic bicyclists. It seemed a perfect summer morning until, police say, a car crossed the centerline, crashed into the group and killed local residents Amy Gehring and Terry Walker.
And then the police account took an all-too-familiar turn: Alcohol or drugs likely contributed to the crash.
INTERVENE EARLY
Besides heartache and furor, the July 16 Crosby Township tragedy caused a restless search for appropriate punishments - and possible prevention. But the interest and energy come too late. The time to prevent such disasters is before an impaired driver slips behind the wheel of the car.
On that point, at least, it is possible to find answers.
The statistics behind such tragedies shed light on the problem of drunk driving and may help shape prevention efforts. It’s a pressing public-health concern - in 2004, 16,694 Americans died in alcohol-related accidents, a fourth of all traffic deaths.
Centers for Disease Control says three-quarters of those convicted in DUI cases are frequent heavy drinkers or alcoholics. And one-third of drivers arrested for or convicted of driving under the influence are repeat offenders.
Those statistics contradict the rhetoric that most DUI offenders were simply innocents caught in a one-time circumstance. Most, in fact, play Russian roulette with alcohol and vehicles. And a large number don’t stop drinking the first time they’re caught.
STOP THE DRIVING
And most convicted drivers with suspended licenses don’t stop driving. According to Mothers Against Drunk Driving, half to three-fourths of drunk drivers with suspended licenses continue to drive - poorly. A third of second-time DUI offenders and half of third-time offenders with suspended licenses received violations or were involved in crashes.
In a sense, what that all adds up to is what doesn’t work - why many drunk drivers don’t stop drinking or driving.
But there is growing consensus on prevention that works.
MADD, the CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control and the National Commission Against Drunk Driving all agree mandatory treatment programs are at least partially effective.
They promote recovery - the only real long-term solution to a problem that exhibits itself as a crime but is at heart an illness - and they reduce recidivism. MADD reports that DUI offenders who enter treatment show a 7 percent to 9 percent drop in recidivism.
TAKE THE CARS
Limiting offenders’ access to vehicles - not just their possession of driving licenses - also helps. In California, first-time offenders whose vehicles were impounded had a fourth fewer crashes and repeat offenders had 38 percent fewer. Studies in Maryland and California show that alcohol-triggered ignition locks reduced repeat DUI offenses by 65 percent to 90 percent.
And taking an all-around tougher stand reduces impaired driving as well - mandatory license revocation, lowering the blood alcohol calculation to .08, mandatory substance-abuse assessment and sobriety checkpoints on roadways.
RECOGNIZING WHAT WORKS
States are beginning to build consensus on some aspects of DUI law. Now all states have adopted 21 as the legal drinking age, and two-thirds allow police officers to take the license of drivers who refuse a breath test. Many states have lowered the limit for blood alcohol concentration from .10 to .08 and a dozen states penalize underage drivers for any measurable amount of alcohol in their systems.
In a nutshell, the effective approach is to require treatment, limit access to vehicles and - especially - act decisively on the first offense. “We cannot wait for a repeat offender to be caught a second time by the legal system,” the National Commission Against Drunk Driving states on its web site. We couldn’t agree more.
I agree with what the article has to say, although I do wonder if the money and resources spent on mandatory treatment couldn’t be put to better use (a 7 percent to 9 percent drop in recidivism isn’t too impressive). I’m all for treatment, recovery, and rehabilitation, but, treatment is only truly effective if the person actually wants to get better. On the other hand, 7 to 9 percent is better than nothing.
The good news is: Statistically, alcohol related traffic fatalities are on the decline, albeit a very slow and gradual decline.
Sickening news from the Cincinnati area (courtesy of WLWT):
Mon Jul 17, 6:54 PM ET
A bicycle outing turned deadly when two people were struck and killed by an oncoming car shortly before noon Sunday.
Deputies said 25-year-old Anthony Gerike, of Batavia, lost control of his Geo Tracker along on New Haven Road near Crosby Road. He went left of center and drove head-on into a group of 10 cyclists that was traveling westbound, officials said.
Investigators said Gerike’s car continued to travel out of control and also hit a Chevrolet Cavalier that was traveling behind the group.
Two bikers, 51-year-old Amy Gehring, of Cincinnati, and 53-year-old Terry Walker, of Fairfield, were pronounced dead at the scene of the crash.
“I just started crying. I couldn’t believe it,” Walker’s neighbor Darlene Baldock said. “It was a shame, especially the way it happened — very senseless.”
A passenger in the Cavalier, Frank Meeker, 48, of Fairfield, was treated at the scene for minor injuries.
Gerike was transported from the scene to University Hospital, where he was treated for minor injuries.
He has been released into the custody of the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Department and faces two counts of aggravated vehicular homicide and driving with a suspended license.
Gerike was in court Monday, and a judge set his bail at $1 million.
Deputies said Gerike’s license was suspended only a month ago and has been suspended a total of six times.
The sheriff’s office said that alcohol and/or drugs were a factor in the crash, which remains under investigation.
I don’t even know where to begin… What do you do, short of life imprisonment (which doesn’t sound like such a bad idea) to stop these people? I could easily write a thousand words on all of the ways that this story is fucked up, but I won’t. At least not right now. Right now I’m long on outrage and short on solutions; maybe later.
Anthony Gerike was convicted of aggravated drug possession in Clermont County after an arrest in January 2004. His current case will go to a grand jury on July 26.
So, I was clearing out the “bulk” mail folder on my ISP and one particular sender caught my eye:
Does that actually fool anyone? “Oh sure, my old pal Pocketful R. Vomits; from college!”
At least they got a smile out of me as I summarily deleted the message, unopened and unread.
“RicoudJour” posted the following to rec.bicycles.racing in a thread about whether rider radios should be allowed in bike racing or not (links and tilde added):
I think that all riders should be given Ipods each morning, preferably playing the immortal John Tesh’s “Tour de France” on endless loop. There would be two disguised Ipods given out at random. One would play a 70’s porn soundtrack dubbed by Ivan Basso’s sister breathily exhorting the rider to greater efforts with a smattering of cycling terminology thrown in. The other would be an actual race radio with all communications being relayed by the guy who does those totally unintelligible station announcements on subways.
Oh, and there should be a piñata hanging from the 1 km arch.
R
The piñata is a nice touch.
Working third shift and being kept company by the television affords me the opportunity to familiarize myself with the late night TV wasteland and all of its wonderful infomercials. The other night as they extolled the virtues of the fabulous “Sonic Blade” electric knife, one phrase in particular caught my attention; “even if you’ve never used a knife before”. Never used a knife before? Exactly what demographic are they hoping to reach, insomniac pre-schoolers and unfrozen cave men?
“Put away those rounded scissors, little Johnny. Put away your stone scraper, Homo habilis. It’s the amazing new ‘Sonic Blade’! Just look how easy it is! Even if you’ve never used a knife before, you’ll be sawing tin cans in two and filleting tomatoes in no time! But wait, there’s more!”
Oh no there’s not… click!
In light of my previous post, and having gone over Elden Nelson AKA the Fat Cyclist’s thoughts on cyclists expanding our gesture vocabulary. I think it’s time for me attempt a change in tactics. From here on out, when dealing with motorists, I shall attempt to replace my antisocial outbursts of profanity with the following two gestures.(reprinted here, just as Elden wrote them)
Gesture 1: The Anti-Flipoff
I make mistakes while biking in traffic sometimes. And I regret them. In fact, I sometimes feel downright stupid. I want to acknowledge my mistake and apologize for it. Currently, I do this weird pantomime where I shrug my shoulders, and mouth the word, “Sorry!”
The problem with this technique is it takes too long and requires that the person you’re apologizing to is no further away than six feet, and is preferably sitting absolutely still, so as to catch the nuance of the shrug and mouthed apology.
What I need instead is an Anti-Flipoff: something that quickly says, “Oops, me bad. I’m an idiot. Sorry.”
To perform the Anti-Flipoff, rap yourself on the helmet three times, as if checking to see if your head is hollow. It’s quick and it’s self-deprecating. I worry, however, that this one won’t catch on, because while people are generally happy to point out other errors, they’re only rarely aware of their own.
Gesture 2: The Magnanimous Flipoff
You know, not every grievance is equally bad. Sometimes, motorists do something that’s just annoying enough that you want that you want to call their attention to it, but not really bad enough to warrant a flipoff. This gesture says, in effect: “You may well deserve to be flipped off, and in fact most people would flip you off. But I am your moral superior, so I instead choose to forgive you.”
To perform the Magnanimous Flipoff, extend one arm so it’s easily visible, hand splayed, then wobble that hand up and down as if to say, “Your mental faculties are only so-so.” My guess is that the condescending nature of this gesture will make it be perceived as more infuriating than the original flipoff.
There are many more useful gestures in Elden’s post, I just chose these two as they applied particularly to cyclist/driver interactions.
Fellow cyclists:
Feel free to utilize the following riposte when an irate motorist screams at you to “get on the sidewalk”.
I realize that it’s probably hard to tell with your head up your ass; but I’m not walking.
You’re welcome.
|
