He Didn’t Wear Lycra

 Here in the United States, today is Presidents’ Day.

When I was a kid (really, I was!), two separate holidays were celebrated:  the 12th for Abraham Lincoln’s Birthday and the 22nd for George Washington.  That meant two days off from school unless, of course, the holiday fell on a weekend.  In the 1970s, those fetes were eliminated in favor of a Monday holiday in February.

The resulting long weekend gave stores (and, now, Internet retailers) a day to mark down prices on stuff they couldn’t sell for Christmas or other holidays—and customers an excuse to shop.

As I wrote a few years ago, during the 1890s-early 1900s Bike Boom, Washington’s Birthday was Bicycle Day. Bicycle makers debuted new models in splashy shows, and with sales, in much the same way the day would become the occasion to introduce new car models. 

From what I’ve read, that day was chosen because, at this time of year, people sense that Spring was around the corner—and, in the warmer parts of the country, it had all but arrived.  In those balmier locales (and some less temperate), the day also began the riding or racing season.

Our current President, Joe Biden, has been spotted riding with his wife, Jill, on more than one occasion.  His predecessor who shall not be named did everything he could to denigrate bicycles and cyclists.  But Obama, Clinton and both Bushes were at least occasional cyclists. So was Jimmy Carter, until recently.

I don’t think Ronald Reagan ever mounted two wheels while he was in office, though he was known to ride in his younger days.  And another president I shouldn’t name—let’s call him Tricky Dick—is probably the last person in the world I would expect to see on a bike. (Peter Sagal quipped that in San Clemente, he was seen surfing in his dress shoes.  So it’s not surprising to see him cycling in, shall we say, non-cycling attire.

From The Bicycle Story

Is That All They Want?

One thing I notice while cycling is that signs and billboards don't always convey the intended messages. 

I saw an example last week, as I crossed the Northern Boulevard Bridge into Flushing:

Is this billboard telling us that if Morgan & Morgan wins your case, all they want is for you to pay?  I mean, I could understand if they feel that way: I've felt the same way about jobs I've done.  

Or should they reverse the order of "Only" and "Pay?" Somehow I think that would entice more would-be clients:  If the lawyer doesn't win, you don't pay.

One would think that in a firm of lawyers, at least one of them would have thought about how they phrase their pitches. 

Where No App Has Gone Before

One of the most difficult things I had to do when I taught freshman English classes was to define plagiarism. 

The standard working definition is taking someone else's work or ideas and passing them off as one's own.  Of course, if such a definition were ever codified as law, just about everyone would be guilty.  After all, so many things most of us say in the course of a day come from Shakespeare, the Bible or other works of literature--or are simply familiar utterances from famous or anonymous folks. As often as not, people aren't aware of the source of whatever they've said, even as they acknowledge that "there is nothing new under the sun."

So I have to wonder how the world would be different if some patent or intellectual-property attorney had too much time on his or her hands in Waterloo, Wisconsin in 1975.  Would Dick Burke and Bevil Hogg have been sued for naming their new bicycle company Trek?

I mean, even if they weren't "Trekkies," I'm sure they would've known about the iconic space-travel series.  Then again, I don't know how Gene Roddenberry would have heard about a couple of latter-day hippies building bikes in the Midwest as the '70's North American Bike Boom was losing steam--or how inclined he would have been to sic lawyers on them.  Somehow, I think the folks at Paramount Television Studios, which purchased Desilu, the original producers of Star Trek, would have been even less likely to know what a couple of dudes in "flyover country" were up to.

What if he'd built bikes?

From what I've read, the company's founders claimed that their choice of name had nothing to do with Captain Kirk's vehicle.  Ironically, Hogg wanted to name the company Kestrel--which would become the name of another bike maker that, a decade later, would pioneer the carbon fiber and fork design on which Trek would still later base their carbon-fiber offerings.

So, I didn't know whether to laugh, cry or cringe when I learned that Trek challenged Jchon Perkins' registration of his trademark name--Prize Trek--for a mobile game app.  Players "participate in a scavenger hunt and win valuable cash (sic) and prizes sponsored by local businesses" according to an Associated Press article.  It is, the article claimed, "a powerful marketing tool that can provide small businesses with free advertising for life."

In 2018, when Perkins applied to register "Prize Trek" with the US Patent and Trademark Office, Trek Bicycle filed an opposition, claiming Perkins' trademark could too easily be confused with theirs.  The following year, the USPTO overruled Trek's opposition and granted Perkins his trademark.

Last year, he sued Trek Bicycles, claiming their opposition had delayed the app's development and market entry.  On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Janet Neff ordered the case dismissed. So Perkins has his trademark, but the app doesn't seem to be available to the public just yet. 

Whatever comes of the app, this story is quite the Trek, I mean, journey.