Danny Colyer <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...
Quoted message said:
I've drafted a page with my thoughts on the debate. It
focuses more on the characteristics of the debaters than
on the actual content of the debate, but I think
understanding the people you're arguing with is actually
quite important: <url:http://www.speedy5.freeserve.co.uk/-
danny/cycling/ghd.html>
Constructive criticism welcome, especially if anyone
feels I've misrepresented the group they'd position
themselves in. I'm particularly keen to find a less
inflammatory name for the Informed Ignoramus - I think I
had a better name when I first had the idea for the page,
but I've forgotten it.
Linnaeus himself would be pleased with your classifications.
As it happens I have self-published a monograph on the
subject of helmets and the quality of the brains they
purport to protect; one day I plan to make it available to
the public, when I deem the 'common man' to be ready for my
startling revelations. In the mean-while I shall content
myself with relating the following anecdote:
The former Mrs Blovius and I chose as the locus of our
honeymoon an ill-fated tour of the west country (Dorking in
particular), by tandem bicycle. She was at that time subject
to a nervous condition which she later overcame thanks to
the salubrious and bracing effect of my personality but
which inevitably contributed to a generally disappointing
experience awheel. My new bride insisted as a precondition
to mounting the tandem that the captaincy be awarded to
herself, her reasoning being that she didn't trust my skills
in that department on the basis of a few minor skirmishes I
had been party to during our engagement. Readers, she
considered me un-roadworthy! This is unmitigated hogwash; I
am perfectly capable of piloting any given vehicle on a safe
trajectory along the Queen's Highway provided I am not
surrounded by the phrenologically-challenged. However, in
the spirit of marital harmony I acquiesced.
Our 'maiden voyage' was much smoother than I anticipated,
thanks in large measure to my expert instructions and
helpful running commentary. All went well for several
hundreds of feet, at which point Gertrude unexpectedly put
an abrupt halt to our fine momentum. This not being a course
of action I had anticipated, my normally excellent sense of
balance vacated me. I toppled off unceremoniously, striking
my head against my bride's whalebone corset along the way.
She was surprisingly unapologetic, positing that not only
had I insisted upon the garment which had just gored me but
that I was in some sense responsible: 'too much talking and
not enough pedalling' was how she unkindly put it whilst
briskly attending to my flesh wound. It was then that it
occurred to me that if only for the sake of future
generations of scientists my head be properly swaddled in
hardy materials.
Ever after I have worn a helmet of my own devising,
eschewing sissyboy foam and polystyrene in favour of
whalebone and leather, cinched tight.
Theodore Blovius II (esq.)
