Doing Their Good Deed Daily?

Previously, I've mentioned that The Bowery Boys is one of my favorite non-bike blogs.  Now I'm going to introduce you to another:  Old Picture of the Day.

Like Bowery Boys and Nikon Sniper (another favorite), OPD is not normally bike-related.  However, today's photo featured two Boy Scouts giving rides to girls.  The question is:  To whom do those bikes belong?

As you've probably noticed, those bikes have girls'/female frames.  Now, we've all seen guys on girls' bikes:  Come on, admit it, all of you guys have ridden your wife's, girlfriend's, sister's or mother's--or some other woman's--bike.  Maybe you didn't know whose bike it was.  That's OK. ;-)  Or, maybe you even owned the bike.  That's OK, too.  At one point of my life, I was commuting on women's bikes because they were completely out of fashion, so they weren't being stolen as much as men's bikes were.

But how likely is it that both of those Boy Scouts owned girls' bikes?

Were they riding men's bikes, I would have guessed that those boys were following the Scout pledge:  Do A Good Deed Daily.  However, if those bikes belonged to the girls, I would have to wonder whether they "picked up" those Boy Scouts.  From what I understand, that would have gone against the gender norms of 1937, when that photo was taken.  

And it looks like the Scouts' troop is standing in the background, off to the left in the photo.  Could it be that those girls went up to that troop and picked the two boys they thought were the cutest?  Now that would be a real breach of gender norms of that time!

Or do you think there's some other story behind the photo?

Hitched And Kickstanded By Stephen Baird

One of my favorite non-cycling blogs is Nikon Sniper.  In it, photographer Stephen Baird showcases his beautiful and, at times, touching photographs.


Apart from the visual lushness (Is that a word?) of his images, I find myself drawn to his blog, in part, because it is so different from my own.  His posts consist almost entirely of his photos with occasional brief comments; mine are lots of words (I'm a writer, after all) interspersed with images that are nowhere near the quality of his.  


When I fist started following Nikon Sniper, most of Stehen's photos seemed to be of natural settings:  sunsets on bodies of water and in canyons, flora and fauna (although, thankfully, they didn't fall into the sentimentality that is a peril of such photos), mountains and the like.  That makes sense, as Steve is obviously an outdoorsman.


However, lately, Steve seems to have branched off into "slice of life" and shots that are the still-photo equivalents of cinema verite.  Or, perhaps, he'd been making such photos all along, and simply decided to start sharing them.

"Hitched And Kickstanded" by Stephen Baird, In Nikon Sniper

In any event, I decided to post a photo he posted today.  Not only does its content appeal to me, but also the feelings it evokes in me.  It reminds me that, in at least one way, a bike is a metaphor for life:  It doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful and useful, and to make its owner happy.


Plus, as wedded as I am (for now, anyway) to city life, I'd love to be able to park my bike with such a thin cable lock!