what I have learned today.

[Torslanda]

You're welcome . . .

[Bledlow]

Alessandro Volta & I have the same birthday.

[T42]

The dying words of Henri de la Tour d'Auvergne, Vicomte de Turenne, struck by a cannonball at the battle of Sasbach in 1675, were "I did not mean to die today".

IMHO it was a very considerate cannonball that left him the time to say anything.

[Mr Larrington]

At least he was spared the fate of Viscount Medardo of Terralba, split into two separate Viscounts by a Turkish cannonball somewhere in Bohemia.

[Legs]

that Judge Jules is Rick Stein's nephew.

[Mr Larrington]

I reckon Tom Morello of RATM/Audioslave has that beaten - his great-uncle was Jomo Kenyatta.

[T42]

At least he was spared the fate of Viscount Medardo of Terralba, split into two separate Viscounts by a Turkish cannonball somewhere in Bohemia.

Ruthless buggers these Calvinists.

[mcshroom]

That it's not a good idea to take a new bike you don't yet fully trust down a 1:4. I was more than a little scared heading off of Honister pass today and eventually gave up and walked a bit

[T42]

You can buy tin pants. Only they're not.

https://youtu.be/Kr4SwxniDVE

[TheLurker]

That the bods who run West Wings (AKA Pro Scale) will be retiring in July and that if they can't find a buyer for the business that'll be one less supplier of aero-modelling stuff.

[Mr Larrington]

You can buy tin pants. Only they're not.

https://youtu.be/Kr4SwxniDVE

Matches the metal bras of which Shakespeare wrote centuries before Madonna had the idea.  "Now sir, young Four Tin Bras.  Of unimproved mettle hot and full."

[mrcharly-YHT]

That Freud based his 'castration complex theory' on the reports by the father of a child. The father was in therapy and a devotee of Freud's theories, so all reports to Freud were tainted by what he thought Freud wanted to hear.

This I learned by reading this wonderful essay:
http://celestenewbrough.net/assets/kindekirchekuche_weis28723.pdf

[Bledlow]

I have learned that the Leftpondian city of Cleveland, in the state of Ohio, has a suburb called Shaker Heights, so named because there was formerly a Shaker community in the area, & that Shaker heights was developed as a planned community* by a rather odd pair of brothers named Mantis & Oris Van Sweringen, who had unsuccessfully run a cycle shop before becoming property developers.

A lot of things suddenly make sense. http://yehudamoon.com/comic/2016-10-25/



*Of the well-off. Restrictive covenants to control development.

[T42]

You can buy tin pants. Only they're not.

https://youtu.be/Kr4SwxniDVE

Matches the metal bras of which Shakespeare wrote centuries before Madonna had the idea.  "Now sir, young Four Tin Bras.  Of unimproved mettle hot and full."

She walks in pewter, like the knight

[ian]

I have learned that the Leftpondian city of Cleveland, in the state of Ohio, has a suburb called Shaker Heights, so named because there was formerly a Shaker community in the area, & that Shaker heights was developed as a planned community* by a rather odd pair of brothers named Mantis & Oris Van Sweringen, who had unsuccessfully run a cycle shop before becoming property developers.

A lot of things suddenly make sense. http://yehudamoon.com/comic/2016-10-25/



*Of the well-off. Restrictive covenants to control development.

The also spelled Cleveland wrong (it's named after Moses Cleaveland not Grover). The story (probably disappointingly apocryphal) is that they dropped the 'a' because it wouldn't fit on the newspaper masthead without scrunching up the letters.

A lot of Ohio (the Western Reserve) was founded by Connecticutians (the Connecticut Land Company) and looks curiously New Englandish to this day. Connecticut's original charter let it run all the way to the Pacific which would have made it made it the fettucine state, owing to its long extruded nature. Alas it was cruelly snipped by circumstance.

[Kim]

That the fairy has it in for me.
Front wheel blowout at about 40mph. More to come when I've been rescued.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Shit! Hope you're ok. And the bike?

[Ashaman42]

Ditto, hope neither you nor the bike are mangalated.

[Kim]

From what I've seen it's going to need a new front mech, rim, tyre, dynamo wiring and some work on the seat.  Chainset may be damaged, dunno.  Pedals were already tatty.

Road rash and bruises.  Right elbow, bizarrely symmetrical arse.  Sitting down may be challenging for the foreseeable.  No broken bones.  Neither my arse nor my elbow were wearing a helmet.  Barakta has just taped our one remaining unscented sanitary towel to my arm.

Also managed to scrape the front wing of an oncoming Audi as I ablated myself to a stop.  Hopefully the CTC can handle that..?  We exchanged details.  Dunno what's next.

Nikki OTP is a star, who not only recovered my bike, but let me bleed all over her car.

Wibble.


I'm really fucking lucky it  a) wasn't a DF road bike  and  b) the oncoming car wasn't any closer.

[hatler]

Ooowwwweeeeeee. Bloody hell. Sounds like that could have been a lot worse. Chapeau to Nikki. And GBS.

[hatler]

"What's next ?"  Painkillers I presume.

[fuzzy]

Yikes! Very glad that you are relatively OK Kim.

[Kim]

While working out what to do, I repaired the puncture, thinking I'd have to walk.  The tyre has sidewall damage from being scraped across the road, but the only apparent cause of deflation was a couple of bog standard flint-type nicks in the tread.  It held air.  I walked back up the road to keep warm, and there wasn't a pothole or anything.  Must just have caught a bit of gravel (I felt a bump, then about 1-2 seconds later the steering went vague, then I was sliding towards an oncoming car).  Scary.

[Pickled Onion]

Yikes, that sounds like quite a scary one. GWS!

[LittleWheelsandBig]

If it is any consolation, it is pretty rare to ride a front rapid deflation to a stop from a high speed.

Commiserations for the road rash and other damage. It might take a little while for you to properly enjoy a fast downhill again. Don't beat yourself up about that either.