Jihad at the Speed of Sound

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I got word from the Great and Powerful Oz that my Trek will be done next weekend. After a week of shakedown, I’m heading to NYC to ride with that Master of Vegan Cookery, The Large Fella. We are planning a ride of epic proportions. 43 stone of studliness rolling the mean streets of NYC,…

Jihad!

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Yesterday’s commute was my 7th ride to work. Since my commute by car is 2 miles each way, I have now commuted 28 miles.My car gets around 28 miles to a gallon of gas (in town), so I have officially saved one gallon of gas by riding my bike so far! Yippee! If you count…

Books: The Sign of the Four

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Sherlock Holmes books are fun to read. I got this one from manybooks.net and loaded it in my Kindle. It’s a story about a murder, a stolen treasure, and the mysteries of colonial India. There’s even an exciting steam-boat chase on the Thames! I give it 5 Jihadis out of 5 One thing I noticed,…

Books: The Reader

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I heard that there was a new movie out wherein Kate Winslet is naked a lot. There are very few things in the world that are nicer than a naked Kate Winslet, and on that count, I would have wanted to see the movie even if it had no story at all. Of course, I…

Books: Founding Brothers

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I have a problem with Alexander Hamilton. I don’t know why. I just don’t like him. I know Thomas Jefferson and John Adams both thought Hamilton was a dick. On the other hand, George Washington seems to have liked him. I don’t know if that means that Hamilton wasn’t a dick, or maybe that Washington…

Vegan Scrapple

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Helen’s Kitchen GardenSteaks are really good. They’re vegan and they’re organic, and they kind of remind me of scrapple. If you want to grow up big and strong, you should have some. I give it 5 jihadis out of 5

Books: Watchmen

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Yeah, I know this is nominally a blog about bicycles, but the weather and a general lack of motivation have kept me inside reading books instead of outside riding bikes. I saw the preview for the movie version, and wanted to read the book before I saw the film. It’s alarmingly good. It’s the only…

Books: Gospel of the Living Dead

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Gospel of the Living Dead is a solid summary of the entire Romero Canon and the various remakes of some of the films. The structure is very logical — Pretty much one chapter for each film. Each chapter begins with an extremely detailed summary of that movie, and ends with a discussion of the religious…

Books: World Made By Hand

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I am a big fan of Jim Kunstler’s work. I listen to the KunstlerCast every week, I loved his TED talk, and I read his weekly rant every Monday. I like his work not necessarily because I agree with all, or even most of what he says, but because I love his bombastic “the whole…

Books: In Defense of Food

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In Defense of Food is sort of a sequel to the Omnivore’s Dilemma. It’s a condemnation of the whole idea of “nutritionism.” The idea that people need scientists with beakers and test tubes to tell them what to eat and how to be healthy. The general idea is that we’ve outsourced our food production to…