Quartercolon making its marks

"The International Grammar Standards Organization has approved the quartercolon for use starting in June of 2004. This is the first new punctuation mark added to the English language since IGSO approved the exclamation mark in 1914."

http://bbspot.com/News/2004/05/quartercolon.html

A colon looks like two periods over each other. A semicolon looks like a period over a comma. The quartercolon looks like two commas over each other.  See the link above for proper usage hints.

Personally, I think it's a sign that some keyboard manufacturer hired a marketing guy who used to work at Hallmark. Just as those fake holidays (Divorced Grandparents Day?) spur greeting card sales, a new punctuation mark every 5 years or so could spur keyboard sales.

Eulogy for a Schwinn Sprint Bicycle

Yesterday, my faithful 1980 Schwinn Sprint bicycle was retired. Stripped. Put into the back of the basement so its remaining parts could be used at some future date.

I bought this bike 5 years ago, in June 1999, at the St. Catherine Laboure rummage sale for $40. I wasn't sure if I ever wanted to ride a drop handlebar road bike again, and this seemed like a cheap way to find out. I intended to do maybe 2,000 or 3,000 miles on the bike until either I figured out drop bars were no longer for me, or I figured out what I really wanted in a road bike and got a new one. I put 8,551 miles on that bike -- only my winter / bad weather / urban commuter bike has more miles on it during the last 4 years.

Our relationship started slowly. The wheels were shot and wouldn't hold a tire on the rim at normal pressure. I tried to sell the bike at my own garage sale but got no takers. But instead of throwing the bike out, I got a new set of wheels for it, moved the shifters from the stem (!) to the downtube, and started riding it in spring of 2000.

It became my summer bike, my club ride bike, and my touring bike for the last 4 years. All of my longest rides (131, 130, 117, 115) and back-to-back centuries are on this bike. I did RAGBRAI across Iowa on this bike (cursing it as I broke 3 spokes on the last day, had to sag in the last few miles).

The Schwinn Sprint was a cheap bike when new. It had gone through one owner already. I didn't maintain it to last forever because I only intended it ride it until I determined what I really wanted. It aged. When I tried to raise the handlebars I discovered rust had fused the front fork together.  The right pedal couldn't removed, because it had been cross-threaded. The frame was slightly bent. 

I bought another inexpensive road bike -- this one a "new" Fuji 10 speed that had sat in a bike shop basement since maybe 1989/1990. I spent yesterday swapping parts -- taking the light brackets, rack, water bottle cage, etc. off the Schwinn Sprint and putting them on the Fuji. I swapped the front wheel as well. The bike is now an amalgam and will be even more so when I swap handlebars and brake hoods (The Fuji has awful brake levers with the extra lever you can use from the top of the handlebars.)

So, in a sense, I just bought some spare parts and a replacement frame. The bike is still evolving, in a way that old bicycles can do, but cars don't. Sort of like the tourist who was shown George Washington's axe.

"Is that really his axe?" asks the tourist.

"Of course it's his axe. We've had to replace to handle 4 times and the head twice, but it's George Washington's axe," replies the tour guide.

I haven't yet figured out what I want in a road bike. In the meantime there's riding to do.

 

 

Too Willing to Help?

A recent nonscientific poll on TheHistoryNet asked:

"Do you believe today's America would be willing to make the same level of sacrifices for other nations as was made during World War II?" We had a total of 2,683 votes for this poll. The results are as follows:

Yes: 23%
No: 72%
Don't Know: 5%

I wonder if this is correct. Before World War II, America was rather isolationist and seemed inclined to avoid foreign entanglements.

These days, we ARE the foreign entanglements, and a little dose of isolationist skepticism might have done us good in 2002 and 2003, and might do us some good now.

There was such widespread support for World War II precisely because we avoided getting in until the issue was crystal clear.