Answering the News

Harvey Weinstein was shouted down when he started talking about the culture that he was working within as an abuser.  It sounded like he was blaming the culture of accepted abuse as an actual reason for his behavior, and if that was what he was doing it was right to shout him down. But, he did put a smudgy finger on something, and until that’s addressed the culture will really not change.  So, right now, let’s not shout anyone down, let’s examine two sides of the same coin and approach this with the full realization that something can be a part of the culture, and still be morally, even legally, wrong, and shouting won’t make it better.  In fact, the root cause might be drowned out by the shouting. Let us also address the fact that women are still not treated as equals in American society.  We can denigrate the Muslims in the Middle East—and we should continue to pressure them to at least move out of the twelfth and embrace at least the twentieth century—or ...

I’ve been a cyclist for over 30 years, and most of those years I’ve been a reader of Bicycling.  Each month I pull the magazine from the mailbox and leaf through it—always front to back, like John Forester might suggest, if he cared about such things—and notate the articles I’ll read more in depth later, and maybe read the shorter blurbs on the spot. The Issue 2, 2019 was no different: What they ride, ultimate guide, how to stuff.  Then: 10 Greatest Upgrades That Changed the Way We Ride, Train, Eat, Look, Talk, and Think About Cycling. Now, I thought, that’s more a challenge than a section title. Power meter, a tiny fraction have ever used that.  GPS, most of us use that.  The Peugeot team jersey, interesting stuff in more ways than one.  Mia Birk, someone most cyclists have never heard about but who benefit from her work immensely.  I turned the page and stared at Jon Knoll’s missive on the molded, multi-density short, and it was almost a Gary...