THE CRABBY CYCLIST

I rather prefer the city streets to bike paths — typically they are in better shape. Much as the image above may belie that assertion, it’s true. You will note that in the image above there are no tree roots snaking across the road, barely covered by macadam. Other than that I realize that it doesn’t exactly look bike friendly, but if you are an urban driver you are looking at something like this nearly all the time. If you are going to be an urban cyclist you need to invite yourself to this party. …

HOW-TO-TORIAL

For an excellent discussion of everything private notey, see Anu Anniah’s article:

One thing she forgot to mention is that if you want a line feed, you have to use shift/enter, otherwise your note will simply be posted as it was when you hit the enter key.

Ahem. The purpose of this writing is to point out that we, the hard-working volunteer editors of MuddyUm,

(OMG we were all so young and beautiful¹ then) depend upon private notes to communicate with you, the writer. I know, I know, private notes — Medium’s excuse for DMing — really bite. …

THE CRABBY CYCLIST

I confess — I am a horrible person. Therefore it should surprise no one that I, a cyclist, am here to — perhaps complain is too strong a word — about pedestrians. More like describe while yielding from time to time to the temptation of snide remarks. After all, like drivers, you hate us all and are convinced that you have good reason for doing so. So yeah. Horrible person, that’s me. Here it is just days after we’ve all witnessed the weaponization of mass hysteria and I’m making heavy weather out of my interactions with pedestrians on bike paths.¹

I can’t help myself. …

As part of my never ending effort to make the Medium Android app great again, I’m trying to gather data about a problem with Android app generated links. Please click on

This link

And respond as to whether or not it took you to my article Remembering the Night Sky, together with whether you are using an iPhone, Android phone, or a browser. When I try to use it with my Android phone I receive an error message.

January 4, 2021:

The world has been through a lot. Nearly two million people have died in a deadly pandemic. My own county, the “good ol’” USA, ranks seventh in the world when it comes to cases per capita. As if that were not enough, we occupy the very apex of two miserable heaps: total cases and total deaths.¹ As if even that were not enough, our current president surely takes first place when it comes to mishandling this crisis, having actively made it worse by turning mask wearing — the simplest and least costly means we have of reducing this grim tide — into a political statement. If you wear a mask, you are one of them. Yes, he has truly made America great again. …

THE CRABBY CYCLIST

Drivers can be very trying, especially when they are trying to be nice. Niceness seems to blind drivers to the fact that if I have at least one foot on the pavement, not only are they free to go, but I very much wish they would already. But niceness happens, especially where a bike path crosses a street. Say I’m riding along a bike path, come to such a crossing, stop, and put down my foot. For the sake of this discussion, let’s add that this intersection does not feature a painted-on stripey crosswalk. Nevertheless, I can almost guarantee that the driver coming up on the left¹ will jam on the breaks as if I had just ridden heedlessly out into the roadway. This places me in an uncomfortable position. Not wanting to be jerk about it, I hurry up and cross, deprived of the opportunity to catch my breath. …

The pandemic is killing people all over the world and here I am getting ready to go on about my pet peeves. In my own defense, I would like to point out that in the process of doing so I hope to pass on some interesting and even useful information.

1. “The coronavirus” Say its name: SARS-CoV-2. That’s pronounced sarz covee too.
   I completely give up on this one. Everybody says “the coronavirus” but there are hundreds of coronavirus species. The Orthocoronavirinae is a subfamily of seven related coronaviruses that infect humans. Of those, four are responsible for the common cold: 229E, NL63, OC43, and HKU1. The remaining three, SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2, cause more serious illnesses. MERS-CoV, which causes MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome), emerged in Saudi Arabia in 2020. MERS is much more deadly than COVID-19, killing about 35% of the people who get sick with it. SARS-CoV causes SARS (Sudden Acute Respiratory Syndrome), which kills about 10%. If COVID-19 (COronaVIrusDisease of 20–19, which is caused, as everyone who doesn’t live under a rock knows, by SARS-CoV-2) had death rates like either one of those you might think we would have an even bigger pile of dead people than what we currently have, but not necessarily. Both the SARS and the MERS epidemics burned out quickly compared to what we currently endure. Neither SARS-CoV nor MERS-CoV are nearly as good at being a virus as SARS-CoV-2. For really effective spread a human-infecting virus needs to be respiratory — so that it can easily spread among us Homo Sapiens sapiens, who have such trouble keeping our mouths shut that a significant number of us object to covering those same mouths even when it could save our precious little lives as well as the lives of those we say we care about. SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV are both respiratory but a successful virus also needs to leave lots of hosts alive. Unfortunately (for us), SARS-CoV-2 has it all nailed down, together with — and unlike either MERS-CoV or SARS-CoV — asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic spread, which make it a real bitch. …

12/23/2020

In the 1950s, the decade of my childhood, after attending the Christmas Eve services at St. John’s Episcopal church — even our atheist father went — we children eagerly awaited the influx of material possessions—excellent training for the good capitalist consumers of the future. The four of us hung our capacious felt Christmas stockings — not by the chimney with care but on our bed posts. This arrangement allowed for immediate gratification on Christmas morning as our parents slept in.

Once we determined that they had arisen, we descended the stairs to claim our “big” gifts from under the tree — Erector sets, chemistry sets, a Chatty Cathy, along with medium-sized gifts from uncles, aunts, and grandparents. …