I'm a lasagna boy!

In which I ride across a bridge, again

After last week's exhilarating and brief ride north'ards, jimg and I headed up an' over Camino Alto and then up an' over White's to have a snack (alas, too cold outside for that really appetizing bottle of Lagunitas IPA! -- next time!) at the Woodacre Deli. I found myself not at all tired, but each climb or long flat stretch had me working the ol' cardiovooscular system on all cylinders. We wound up at Box Dog Bicycles ogling the odd assortment of tandems. Especially the dark-green track tandem.

This was also the second weekend running that I was smoked by someone riding a fixie. Last weekend Jimg handily schooled me from start-to-finish, and especially while heading back up Conzelman Road. This week, while I was huffing and puffing up the south side of Camino Alto, I heard a cheery "How ya doin'" over my left shoulder, and I turned to see a fellow clad in a flannel shirt, with a canvas bag over his bag, riding a beat-up old frame and pushing a single gear at full steam. I did not see him again: he pulled away from me so quickly that though I strained to reach him at the next curve, he was lost from sight.

In which Greg wins.

Greg wins. (But, until he provides per-entry links to his not-a-blog, I cannot share with you the excitement that led up to this photograph.)

Greg also sez:

I'm a computer programmer. But I haven't bought gasoline for my car since sometime in April. I've driven it twice since mid-May.

S{t,c}oop

Dennis Flood has a picture that reminded me of the various meanings of 'stoop':
http://www.dennisflood.com/photos/pow/2004-11/l-stoop-and-scoop-10088.jpg. Wise words to the crowd around Duboce Park, who have but deaf ears.

prove{n,d}

During a conversation I found myself vacillating between proven and proved. A cursory look through the dictionary proved them equivalent:

(v) prove, turn out, turn up (be shown or be found to be) (v) prove, demonstrate, establish, show, shew (establish the validity of something, as by an example, explanation or experiment) (v) testify, bear witness, prove, evidence, show (provide evidence for) (v) prove (prove formally; demonstrate by a mathematical, formal proof) (v) test, prove, try, try out, examine, essay (put to the test, as for its quality, or give experimental use to)

Ditto proven; so why did the particples cause me such confusion? I think I expect the weak version (proven) to accompany a verb of being (e.g., I was proven wrong), and the regular particple form (proved) to be the simple past tense, or the second verb in a compound with a helper such as had: I had proved the theorem.

In praise of the chainguard

I wonder why chainguards disappeared from most bicycles. A nice, sturdy chainguard on my commuter bicycle would make a huge difference to keeping my cuffs clean, and also maintain a sand- and muck-free chainline. Many older and "leisure"-style bicycles have chainguards; why doesn't my Bianchi?
And to balance a rare, positive thought, I read all over the internet today that Karim Cycles got busted for running a fencing ring. Bicycle theft on the Berkeley campus should go down appropriately.

In which I suffer pangs for Pittsburgh

Okay, Pittsburgh holding a BikeFest!, replete with an umbrella circus, trumps Bikesummer in Los Angeles. I've never ridden the Bicycle Oval in Highland Park, and am somewhat jealous that Da Burgh has a nice track within riding distance of where I'd want to live (were I to live there). And here I am in San Francisco, an impossible distance from an 8.30 Saturday start at Hellyer Velodrome.

In which I do not have an aptronym

From the always-engaging A-Word-A-Day email newsletter, I learned the word aptronymically, which indicates a name that describes the occupation or other significant attribute of the named. I suspect that my name, although descriptive ("safe", "salubrious") does not qualify, because I am typically full of vitriol, bile, and irritation (in fact, this evening I snapped at a human-rights worker who stopped at the stoop to solicit funds). Most online baby-name sites merely describe the origin of Salim as 'African' and with meaning 'peace', although the name has Semitic (Phoenician?) origins (cf. Heb. shalom, Ar. salaam) and appears in the Book of John and in place names ancient and modern (or at least less ancient).

In which I ride across a bridge