Yeah, it's a Homestar Runner picture. Don't make fun of me.
I don't like Maureen Dowd very much, but I seem to read her columns without fail. Today she was writing about some problem with Bush being emasculated and having to put the presidential seal on his mountain bike. Throughout the column there's some more stuff about him riding his bike as some kind of escapism. I'm not sure if she's talking about the bike stuff because bikes exist in the popular consciousness as puerile and she's calling Bush a child with no sense of leadership because he rides a bike; she probably is and she sucks. Anyway, I'm digressing. I don't like Bush either, but I do like mountain biking. So, I'm kind of torn, because she's using the mountain bike to make fun of him that pisses me off. I'm also pissed because Bush gives mountain biking a bad name. Couldn't he ride a recumbent and continue to give that a bad name? Ok, I'm digressing again
The point of this poorly conceived post was what does the international financial crisis have to do with bicycles? There must be some effects. I heard a piece on NPR the other day about Service Master (they own Terminex, among other things) and how they're being affected. They're having problems because the credit markets that allow them to get loans as they wait for customers' checks to clean are suddenly tight and its complicating their operating ledger.
So, are times getting more difficult for messengers because crumbling financial giants have no more documents to send around town? Are bike paths becoming more crowded during work hours because newly unemployed financial workers are finally getting around to riding those $7000 Pinarellos they bought on a whim? Is bike theft on the rise because of the high cost of scrap metal? (I think that one is actually true.) What do you think?
Argh!
I found this: http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/861554?UserKey=
ReplyDeleteI don't quite understand how it works.
I would say when the price of gas went over $4 clams this summer it seemed like there were more and more bikes on the road.
ReplyDeleteAlso, seems like everybody and their mother was taking the old bikes from the basement and putting them up on Craigslist. This still seems to be happening today, too.
Also I see more bikes on the backs of cars these days. I think this is all fall out from the high price of gas. Haven't see a lot blingy bikes show up on Craigslist, but then I again, I don't look at the NYC section much.