Month: December 2009

SRAMta Claus comes early to Bibleburg

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 3 Comments
SRAM's Randy Neufeld (right) brought an early Christmas present to Bibleburg's bicycle advocates.
SRAM's Randy Neufeld (right) brought an early Christmas present to Bibleburg's bicycle advocates.

Bibleburg’s bicycle advocacy got a much-needed assist on Friday as SRAM Cycling Fund director Randy Neufeld presented a $10,000 grant to Bicycle Colorado Springs at the Experience Colorado Springs offices.

The grip-and-grin drew a full house, with representatives from Medicine Wheel, Criterium Bicycles, Left Side Spin, Ground Up Designs, Bicycle Village, Angletech, Colorado Springs Cycling Club, the Trails and Open Space Program and the Bibleburg Metro Rides program. No representatives of the local media were on hand, alas, barring Your Humble Narrator.

Also in the house was Jim Sayer, executive director of the 45,000-member Adventure Cycling Association, who gave a brief rundown on his organization and its mission — “to inspire people of all ages to travel by bicycle.” Jim made a similar presentation later in the evening at Old Town Bike Shop, a show I had to skip as Herself required care and feeding.

Chapeau to longtime local velo-advocate Al Brody, Chamber of Commerce chief Terry Sullivan and everyone else who made this happen.

Meanwhile, from Joe’s Garage . . .

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 4 Comments
It aint easy bein greasy.
It ain't easy bein' greasy.

. . . it’s BummerNacht, which marks the kickoff to the 2009 Festival of Zappadan! Burnt weeny sandwiches for everyone at St. Alfonzo’s Pancake Breakfast!

The faithful among you need no reminders, but for the noobs, Frank Zappa was taken from us on Dec. 4 and subsequently born on Dec. 21. As Blue Gal recounts, The Aristocrats (as is their God-given right) designated this period Zappadan — “the days of the year between death and birth, that ethereal time when there was no Frank, so we must celebrate him to keep his spirit safe until his birthday again. Or it’s just a great excuse for a party that has nothing to do with the greed and debt festival known as Christmas in America.”

I myself have already experienced a first Miracle of Zappadan. I didn’t feel like cooking tonight, and lo, when I went to the ’fridge to see what squatted therein, like a Toad of the Short Forest there appeared to me a vast tureen of chili con carne, and the fact that I made about six quarts of this swill the other day is not germane to this conversation. ¡Que milagro!

Mark Hoback is hosting this year’s celebration at his revived website, Fried Green Al Qaedas. Go thou and do likewise, lest The Central Scrutinizer afflict thee with Stink-foot.

Liam Clancy, R.I.P.

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 1 Comment

The last of the Clancy Brothers troupe, Liam, went west today. He was 74.

I saw the Clancy Brothers perform with Tommy Makem in Denver once, many years ago. Guinness was available in the lobby, and before long the crowd was about half in the bag and singing along with them.

They were most raucous during “I Never Will Play the Wild Rover No More,” hollering and stomping their feet ’til the roof shook. Here’s a video of the Clancys performing it on “Rainbow Quest with Pete Seeger.” And here’s another of Liam and Tommy closing a 1977 concert in Dublin with “The Parting Glass.” Peace to you, Liam.

Broom waggin’

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 8 Comments
Just enough snow to break a hip on.
Just enough snow to break a hip on.

Three degrees below zero and another quarter inch of snow. If this is fun, we’re having it.

Corner Mike beat me to the sidewalk-brooming this morning. I call him Corner Mike ’cause (wait for it) he lives on the corner. This helps differentiate him in casual conversation from Alley Mike, who lives — well, you get the picture.

Corner Mike and I are the only guys on this side of the street who are under 75, so we tag team  snow removal. As a part-time rumormonger I have more spare time than Corner Mike, who does something obscurely medical, but he’s an early riser and sometimes beats me to the punch.

He doesn’t do our driveway, though, and stops at the alley, so I still got a brisk upper-body workout in before breakfast. And after a mug of black tea I can almost feel my fingers and toes again.

Paging Dr. Thompson

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 9 Comments
Oh, the weather outside is frightful. Just ask Turkenstein, who prefers a spot on my drawing board to a squat in the snow.
Oh, the weather outside is frightful. Just ask Turkenstein, who prefers a spot on my drawing board to a squat in the snow.

The Brakeman, a.k.a. Dr. Demento, Dr. Doom and Dr. Christopher T. Thompson, is up for sentencing today in the Mandeville Canyon road-rage case, if I recall correctly. VeloNews.com, which covered the trial from gavel to gavel, should have a story up tout de suite with my doppelgänger Patrick Brady on the case.

I don’t know about you, but I’m very interested to see what the judge lays on him. He has 10 years coming, and I’d like to see him serve every second of it.

Meanwhile, nobody will be mistaking Bibleburg for Southern California anytime soon. It was 8 degrees when I arose, and we are anticipating a “high” of 15. The Turk’ has asked to go outside exactly once, and after about five minutes of frigid freedom he’s parked on a sunny spot on my drawing board.

• Late update: Dr. Frankendick’s sentencing has been postponed to next year. The BikingInLA website reports that the continuance was due to — wait for it — a swine-flu-triggered lockdown at the slammer holding the good Herr Doktor. And to think they said irony was dead.