Finally, after many starts and fits (due in equal part to weather and other obligations), I made it down to the Oval on Washington Blvd. for the bi-weekly track races. I was genuinely nervous about it–unlike an alleycat, your lack of speed is readily apparent. My goal was to simply not embarrass myself. I had […]

Posted on July 28th, 2006 by admin
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Today was the Rub-a-Dub alleycat, a scavenger hunt style race that required the racers to find various plaques around the city and do rubbings of them, Indiana Jones-style. I dragged along four first time alleycat-ers–Jen, Doug, and our neighbors Seth and Nikki. My poor performances on scavenger hunt alleycats are well documented, so I was […]

Posted on July 24th, 2006 by admin
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After writing an obituary for this year’s Tour de France, the race has been completely turned on its ear. First, on Tuesday, favorite Floyd Landis cracked in a most spectacular fashion, losing nearly nine minutes to his competitors. How spectacular was it? Nearly everyone in the peleton was shocked at the result. Oscar Pereiro (he […]

Posted on July 20th, 2006 by admin
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Today was supposed to the Le Tour’s version of judgement day–the 21 switchbacks of L’Alpe D’Huez, each corner named after a victor, loomed over the peleton as it does so many years. This would, finally, separate the wheat from the chaff, and provide a bit of the drama that this year’s race has generally lacked. […]

Posted on July 18th, 2006 by admin
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Fr. Jape has focused his ire on Anthony Sacramone’s recent tirade against anyone who has the nerve to question unfettered consumerism. What can explain this little rant of Antonio Sanctimonious? He claims to like pollution, video games, cell phones, and other alleged amenities of urban life that look positively base alongside the real and undisputed […]

Posted on July 13th, 2006 by admin
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The door was wide open. The two pre-race favorites, Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso, were left off their respective teams’ rosters thanks to connections with the doctor at the center of a Spanish doping sting. Americans Floyd Landis, George Hincapie, and Levi Leipheimer found themselves starting as favorites to win the general classificiation. After a […]

Posted on July 8th, 2006 by admin
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I was in the middle of long-ish post on place and localism, when I came across this essay by Emily Yoffe, subtitled Advice columnist wonders what America’s got against parenthood. Yoffe, in her “Dear Prudence” column at Slate, recently advised a young woman to rethink the policy of remaining childless. This touched the collective nerve […]

Posted on July 5th, 2006 by admin
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The Tour of France started yesterday. You may have heard. Folks were saying this was going to be the most wide open race in years, and that was before favorites Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso were suspended by their teams for apparent connections to the doctor at the center of Operacción Puerto. Now the race […]

Posted on July 2nd, 2006 by admin
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The race went off this morning, and 27 brave souls showed up to test their navigational skills against the course. As folks were pouring over maps during registration, I wandered around asking about potential courses through the checkpoints. Some folks were going to brave the hills and unmarked streets between the North Side and Shaler, […]

Posted on July 1st, 2006 by admin
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