The other day, my friend Beverly told me she's going to spend today with her kids and grandkids on Staten Island. I'm going "with bird in tow," she said.
I asked whether she'd planned to use a tow truck to drag a turkey across the Verrazano Bridge. "That sounds cruel!" exclaimed.
Plus, it would definitely lead his fellow feathered friends in a fowl mood. (I couldn't resist that one!)
Happy Thanksgiving!
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day--and, unofficially, the beginning of the "holiday season"--here in the US.
Although this time is festive for some, it comes with increased dangers. Among them are "crimes of opportunity," especially in shopping and touristic areas. Such incidents include car break-ins, purse snatchings, other kinds of theft and sexual harassment and assault. As one shopper pointed out, a woman alone in a parking lot is especially vulnerable at this time of year, as darkness arrives earlier in the day.
Knowing that, police departments typically increase their presence in such places at this time of year. Typically, constables pass by in patrol cars; sometimes cops do their work on foot. But at least one police department has figured out that sending officers to such areas on bicycle is perhaps the most effective means of fighting and deterring crime.
That is what the Kyle, Texas police department will be doing for the fourth year. The Austin-area city's department specially trains officers for bike duty. One benefit, according to officer James Plant, is that "we can get into areas that police cars can't." Moreover, he says, bikes are quiet, which allows officers to "be stealthy" and "sneak up on the criminal."
The real value, he says, of the bike patrols is not so much in busting criminals but in deterring them. The officers on bikes, he explains, are "an extra set of eyes and ears in the community."
And, it seems, people like the bike patrols. "We get a lot of thumbs-up," Plant says.
There are a number of athletes I admire for their accomplishments in their sports. But there is a much smaller number whom I respect equally, or even more, as human beings. They include Jackie Robinson, Billie Jean King, Muhammad Ali, Colin Kaerpernick, Simone Biles--and Marshall Walter "Major" Taylor.
Some day, I'm sure, a documentary or biopic will be made about Ms. Biles. Films have already been made from the triumphs and struggles of Robinson and Ali. Five years ago, "Battle of the Sexes" focused on King's 1973 match--which she won--against Bobby Riggs. While it was a good film, I think it also helped to reinforce the tendency to think of Ms. King only in terms of that, and not on, not only of the way she dominated her game as Martina Navratilova and Serena Williams would later on, but also of her advocacy for women and LGBTQ folks.
But, to my knowledge, Major Taylor hasn't received cinematic canonization. One reason for that may be that there isn't anybody alive who saw him ride or can even remember how he dominated bike racing to the same degree as the other athletes I've mentioned towered over their sports. Thus, most people who aren't familiar with the history of cycling or African Americans don't realize that he was the first African American champion of any sport half a century before Robinson set foot on a Major League baseball field.
 |
| Clement Virgo (l) and "Major" Taylor |
It seems that situation is about to change. Canadian director Clement Virgo, who also helmed feature films "Rude" and "Lie With Me" as well as the six-part miniseries "The Book of Negroes," has been tapped to direct "Black Cyclone." The title comes from one of the more flattering nicknames given to Taylor. (As a black man in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, he also was called names that I, someone who isn't exactly profanity-adverse, won't repeat.) John Howard, a three-time Olympic and four-time U.S. Road Champion cyclist (who also set a land speed record that stood for a decade) will serve as a consultant on the project.
Production is set to begin next year.
