How to earn big money through social distancing in your spare time.
As ridiculous as it may seem, yes, I do have a bike to review for Adventure Cyclist, and si, I have been out riding it.
Not with authority, élan, and grace, mind you. But still. A man must earn.
I slapped some cheapo bear-trap pedals on this one, to accommodate the ankle and its brace, and somehow I managed to spaz myself into a nice nick on the shin.
I had forgotten this characteristic of the old-school pedal, and may go to Eighties-era cyclocross pedals with toeclips and straps or even have a go at clipless pedals, just for the sake of science.
Speaking of science and the fiction thereof, I guess Marcus Weebles, O.D., has been cutting his Adderall with hydroxychloroquine. He apparently digs the high, and is recommending it to everyone, probably not because “several pharmaceutical companies stand to profit, including shareholders and senior executives with connections to the president,” according to The New York Times.
Add a little hydroxychloroquine, m’boy, and you’ll be as right as rain.
Adds the Times:
“Mr. Trump himself has a small personal financial interest in Sanofi, the French drugmaker that makes Plaquenil, the brand-name version of hydroxychloroquine.”
Zut alors! Say it is not so!
The search for salable snake-oil recipes made at home in your spare time reminds me of “Burned Again,” a tale from the seventh collection of “The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers” comics.
Fat Freddy finds a “neat container” in the street and he and Freewheelin’ Franklin try prying it open to see what’s inside. Phineas recognizes the radiation symbol on the thing and — using a Geiger counter he built from plans in “Popular Atomics” magazine — determines that it is not leaking. Yet.
Nevertheless, Fat Freddy “freaks” and draws himself a bath of Chinese mustard and Clorox, explaining, “It’s a remedy for radiation poisoning I read about in ‘Amateur Doctor’ magazine!”
Hm. Fat. Stupid. Ridiculous blond hair. Zero impulse control. Doper. Say, you don’t suppose Fat Freddy grew up to become … nahhhhh.
Y’think? Nawwwwww.
Tags: Adventure Cyclist, Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, Marcus Weebles O.D.
Mad Blog Media 
April 7, 2020 at 9:14 am |
I wonder if a pair of SPD’s with the tension screw all the way out would work for you.
April 7, 2020 at 9:19 am |
Yeah, I’ve gotten some side-to-side motion back in the ankle, so that might work. The problem is fitting the ankle and its brace into a cycling shoe. I’ve been riding in low-rise Vasque hikers. With a thin sock on the bum foot everything fits in the shoe.
Plus, the small platform of an SPD may be an issue. And of course, walking even a short distance in the ol’ Sidis seems contraindicated at this time.
April 7, 2020 at 10:06 am |
Yep. Seems to me the old rattraps or beartraps are what works with boots but I do recall what happens when you accidentally spin one backwards into the shin bone.
April 7, 2020 at 1:16 pm |
I took to using soccer shin guards to avoid bear trap bite back in the day.
April 7, 2020 at 9:38 am |
i saw on youtube that there was supposed to be a claymation movie of the fabulous furry freak brothers. it never got made but there was a clip that looked interesting.
April 7, 2020 at 10:04 am |
I have a set of these in the parts box. Want me to send them to you?
https://bike.shimano.com/en-US/product/component/deore-t6000/PD-M324.html
April 7, 2020 at 10:14 am |
Hey, thanks, Hoss. But I just remembered I have a set of these on hand.
April 7, 2020 at 11:42 am |
This is what I use on the Double Cross. I has a flat platform opposite the SPD side, without the “shark teeth.”
https://bike.shimano.com/en-US/product/component/tiagra-4700/PD-A530.html
April 7, 2020 at 11:30 am |
Combined knee/shinguard, Gentlemen. Works for riding and also kneeling when doing yard work, house chores, praying, etc. 🙂
April 7, 2020 at 11:59 am |
Puttees. That’s what you need. In a pinch you might be able to make some out of handlebar tape. Just make sure those shins are shaved! and fear naught ole chap.
April 7, 2020 at 12:23 pm |
I could make some greaves out of old SKS fenders and toe straps. …
April 7, 2020 at 2:15 pm |
So I see that Acting Secretary Modly got the bum’s rush. Good news for the day.
April 7, 2020 at 2:22 pm |
What a douchenozzle. Alas, he will topple from this high place into a vast pile of greenbacks, therein to wallow and chortle like Scrooge McDuck.
April 7, 2020 at 2:39 pm |
I hope the toppling happens soon. We can’t take much more of his total incompetence. And I doubt if he has a vast pile of money anymore.
April 7, 2020 at 2:42 pm |
He resigned, Pat.
April 7, 2020 at 3:48 pm |
Freudian slip and a rush to comment. Guilty as charged, your honor. I got the wrong asshole.
April 7, 2020 at 3:53 pm |
So many people have to go, it’s hard to keep them all straight. Can’t tell the players without a program.
April 7, 2020 at 2:41 pm |
He was an Annapolis grad and USN chopper pilot. Woulda thought he knew better but I wonder if the airdales are sometimes the most problematic, at least the ones that mustered out as junior officers as he did after seven years according to his DoD web page.
I resigned my full NROTC scholarship after a summer cruise spent with the airdales at NAS Corpus Christi. Long story, but I ended up getting one of the junior officers written up and he wanted to punch me out and got really pissed off when I turned and walked away. Next day the marine major called me out for being a rat in front of the whole middie battalion. I couldn’t have bought a friend for the rest of that cruise.
I said to hell with the whole thing. This was the USN right after Vietnam ended and I don’t think it was at its finest. On the other hand, neither was I.
April 7, 2020 at 8:03 pm |
Khal et al: That was about the time the draft went away and our military became an all-volunteer force. I was stationed, as an AF guy, with the Army then, and the cultural clash between the mid- and upper-level drafted “management” and the new volunteers took at least a decade to resolve. Wasn’t pretty … although I believe we ended up with a much better force today (albeit less representative of America as a whole).
April 7, 2020 at 8:26 pm |
Less representative indeed. That is precisely the problem. They volunteered to do it absolves the power elite from the responsibility.
April 7, 2020 at 8:50 pm |
Was also pre-Tailhook days, JD. What got me in the deep shit was an incident in the NAS Corpus Christi Midshipman’s Club. Two JO’s were partying with us midshipmen, our dates, and a bunch of parents and relatives. The JOs decided to pour pitchers of beer onto the bar, strip naked, and slide themselves down the length of the bar on their bare asses.
Watching the reaction of the civilians, I went up to the O-Club and asked for the manager, telling him he probably ought to wander down to the Midshipman’s club and see what was going on.
Well, as Warren Zevon might say, the shit hit the fan. Maybe I was an idiot for being idealistic and thinking this was conduct unbecoming. At any rate, I mustered out. It was a painful but necessary transition for me. I guess it all worked out.
Never did find out what happened to those JO’s.
April 7, 2020 at 6:07 pm |
All this working at home shit is good for one thing. I get a ride in almost every day. Just rang up a P.B. on the Fat Guy’s Tour de Outer Loop of the La Tierra Trails, 55:27
April 7, 2020 at 6:29 pm |
I had to take a day off. Jeez, the allergies down here are pow’ful bad today. Mulberry’s off the charts stupid bad. The city sez the air quality is “unhealthy for sensitive groups,” and you know what a sensitive fella I am.
April 7, 2020 at 8:29 pm |
And the best band gets a new member. The Angel from Montgomery has flown.
April 7, 2020 at 8:56 pm |
Oh, fuck…