Sheltered In Memory

On Sunday, Bill, Cindy and I took the ferry from the Brooklyn Army Terminal, about a mile from Bill's apartment, to Rockaway Beach.   Perhaps I "read" the choppiness of the water into everything I experienced on the ride, from the wind skittering over sand and marsh grasses to the clouds scattered through the sky.

Don't get me wrong:  I enjoyed the ride.  It wasn't long, but the company and the vistas were pleasant, and sometimes interesting.

Saying that someone lives in "a house by the water" probably conjures, for most people, an image of its inhabitants gazing over expanses of sea and sky from an open-air balcony or glass-enclosed solarium.  But, really, it can mean much else, such as this

or this

The first photo probably is a better reflections of most people (at least those who've never lived in such places) have of living "in a beach house" or "by the ocean".   There is one difference, of course:  more color.  If anything, it might look more like South Beach, Miami than the South Shore of Long Island.

The other photo is probably closer to the reality of most waterside residents.  If you think you've seen it before, you probably have:  A couple of weeks ago, we rode by it when the tide was out and mud and other detritus oozed (where murky water would lap around when the tide is in) between those islands of marsh grass and houses.

We are still trying to figure out what the geared wheel is.  My theory is that there was a boat dock there at some point--perhaps as recently as in the days just before Sandy--and that wheel was part of some mechanism that towed boats in.  Now that I think of it, I recall seeing boats in the area before Sandy.

Anyway, on the way back to Bill's place, we rode through Sunset Park.  Many, many years ago, my grandparents took me to the top of this hill

in the park.  The view doesn't seem to change much.  Or maybe there is more change than I realize, and I just don't see it because I always look out, toward the harbor and Statue, from that hill.  It's as if some law of physics applies only in that spot:  My eyes cannot turn in any other direction. 

But at least that view is different from any other maritime or littoral vista I have encountered.  It has to be, even if someone  builds houses of the blue and green and terra cotta tiles--or gnarled bark-- between me and the expanse of harbor:  the one I saw with my grandparents more than half a century ago, and with Bill and Cindy the other day.

Michael Goolaerts, R.I.P.

Professional athletes are usually young and in prime physical condition.  That is why almost nobody expects one to die while competing or training.

So it was for Michael Goolaerts.  The 23-year-old Belgian collapsed from cardiac arrest during Paris-Roubaix, the one-day race often dubbed "L'enfer du nord" (the Hell of the North).  

It was originally reported that Goolaerts crashed.  There are no images available, but more recent reports say that he was found on the side of a cobblestoned road, where he is believed to have fallen.  No other riders were found at the scene.  

From there, he was airlifted to a hospital in the northern French city of Lille where he died, surrounded by his family.

Current reports say that he died of cardiac arrest, which could easily explain his fall and why medical assistance was to no avail.  Unlike a heart attack, during which the heart to continues to beat, in cardiac arrest, the heart immediately stops pumping blood to the brain, lungs and other organs.  A heart attack requires prompt attention, while a cardiac arrest victim needs almost immediate help if he or she is to survive, let alone recover.

Another way that cardiac arrest differs from a heart attack is that the former comes without warning.  That is why we occasionally hear of athletes suddenly collapsing and dying, as Goolaerts seems to have done, and why it is so surprising.

I give my condolences:  I can hardly imagine the shock and grief his family, friends and colleagues in the cycling community are feeling.

On Their Own Planet

I was a child in 1968.  I might not have understood everything I saw on the evening news, but I knew it was a tumultuous time. (OK, I didn't know the word "tumultuous".)  As I mentioned the other day, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated.  Robert F. Kennedy would meet a like fate two months later.  There were riots, demonstrations and strikes everywhere.

In the midst of it all, some of the cultural touchstones (and cliches) of the late 20th Century made their appearance.  Among them were two movies that became nearly all-purpose metaphors--2001: A Space Odyssey  and Planet of the Apes.

Both movies, er, films, made lots of money for their studios.  If you feel your reputation will be sullied by indulging in a taste for a mere movie, you can turn either into a film by reminding yourself that the music you hear when a chimp uses a shinbone to bash in the skull of a skeletal remain is Richard Strauss's Also Sprach Zarathrusta.  And, Planet of the Apes is based on a novel--namely Pierre Boulle's La Planete des Singes.

(I confess that I learned of the basis in the Boulle novel only recently--as in, about half an hour before I started writing this!)

Anyway...In honor of the 50th anniversary of Planet's first appearance on the big screen, I am offering this:

https://www.askideas.com/chimpanzee-riding-bicycle-funny-picture/

When Toys R Us Didn't Deliver, This Officer Did

Chances are that if you are reading this blog, you didn't purchase your bike at Toys R Us.

But you may have bought one for a daughter, son, grandchild, niece, nephew or other child in your life.  You will not be judged--by me, anyway--if you did.  After all, most such bikes are ridden into the ground, sometimes literally.

Of course, buying anything from Toys R Us is a risky proposition these days, as the chain has declared bankruptcy and is closing its stores.  But I suppose there are bargains to be had, and if you can get one, the risk just might be worthwhile.

(I think I still have a membership card I received when I bought a gift--not a bike!-- for someone's kid or another.  I don't know whether it would actually do me any good now!)

Well, in any event, it seems that when the ship is sinking, some crew members throw their scruples overboard.  That, at least, seems to have been the case in a Temperance, Michigan store.

Toledo police officer Daniel Henderson gives new bike to Haylee McClellan Rowe

Hayley McClellan Rowe bought a bike for her 10-year-old daughter, Shelbie, last month.  As she relates on Facebook, the bike was damaged during assembly.  She returned it and purchased another bike, which was to be assembled by store employees. The receipts for the return of the first bicycle and the purchase of the second were stapled to the box in which the second bike arrived.

When she went to pick up the bike, however, employees could not locate the receipts and the bike was sold to another customer.  Neither the store's management nor the company's offices helped her, even after they were contacted by The Blade of nearby Toledo, Ohio.

Among that city's police officers is a fellow named Daniel Henderson.  He saw Ms. McClellan Rowe's Facebook posts and helped her--and daughter Shelbie--in a way the law couldn't.

He bought her a new bike.

Ms. McClellan Rowe said when she calls the police, she expects help "with the situation at hand."  She did not, however, "expect him to purchase a bike out of his own pocket."

Neither did Toledo Police Chief George Kral.  "Officer Henderson went above and beyond the call of duty for this family, for this little girl," he said.

What--If Anything--Wii This Trade War Cost Us?

I passed the only economics course I took as an undergraduate by promising the professor that he would never, ever see me again if he gave me credit for the class.  If I were to fail, I warned him, I would be forced to take the class again and he might get stuck with me for another semester.

It worked.

Well, all right. It didn't quite go that way.  I passed the class, but I didn't make any such promises or threats.  I think the prof, though, realized that I had absolutely no talent for the subject to which he devoted his life and I wanted to return to school the following semester.  In short, he seemed to feel pity for me, and might've added, oh, a point or two to my final grade.

Anyway...The point of this is that I should not, under any circumstances, be mistaken for an economist.  And, no, I didn't play one on TV. (How does one play an economist on TV?)  So, take anything that resembles economic or business forecasting on this blog with a large bottle of frame prep solution.

As you all know, El Cheeto Grande is proposing tariffs on Chinese imports.  They are in retaliation for similar fees China imposed on imports from the US--which, in turn, were a reaction to earlier tariffs Trumpf slapped on Chinese goods.

The difference between the first and second round of Trump Tariff Punch is that the later round includes a greater number of products than the first, from which consumer goods were mainly absent and, instead, included farm products and basic materials such as steel.

Although details of the second round haven't been made public, some folks who know more than I know say that simply because the second round encompasses about twice as much of what the US imports from China (by monetary value), it's likely to include consumer goods.

As to which consumer goods might be affected:  No one has said outright that bicycles will be in the crosshairs, but it's hard to imagine that they won't be.  The tariffs might even include "bike-related imports", as more than one article put it.  

So, even if you don't buy a Chinese-made bike, there's a good chance that some of the accessories or parts you hang on it will have that tax levied on it.  For example, of my six bikes, four are British (Mercian), one American (Trek) and the other Japanese (Fuji).  I don't have any Chinese parts on them, and about the only accessories from China I use are the rack, lights and handlebar wrap on the Fuji. So, if I were to buy those things today, I wouldn't be affected much, if at all.  

But in spite of my efforts to buy from companies based and operating in countries where workers are paid decently and are guaranteed some basic human rights and protections, I find that I am not "innocent", if you will.  Turns out, my Giro helmets are made in the land of Leninist Capitalism.  So are my riding glasses, gloves and a few other things I use while riding.

What gets taxed, of course, will depend on how the categories of taxed goods are defined.  If there's a group called "bicycle-related goods", or something similar, watch out!  On the other hand, the law might specify certain categories of bicycles defined by price point or wheel size, as is done in places where there is a sales tax on new bicycle sales.  Naturally, none of us would like that tax, but at least you have a clearer idea of what will and won't be taxed.

Now, if this tariff were in the works during my youth, I would have scoffed:  "Well, I don't buy such crap bikes."  These days, though, it's hard to avoid buying Chinese unless you are shopping near the top of the price scale.  Some of those bikes and parts with familiar names you've long known may no longer be made in Europe or Japan or the USA--or even Taiwan.  They may be produced in Chinese factories.

My prediciton:  Some bikes and "bike-related products" will be affected.   But I think they will be a result of falling into larger categories of imports that are affected:  Somehow I don't think that the folks who are charged with turning El Huffy's Twitter storms into international trade law are thinking about bicycles in particular.