Podcasts and Bike Flats

I finally had a flat this morning during my commute.  It happened as I was turning right off of Manhattan Ave onto 110^th Street, fortunately adjacent to Morningside Park (see picture).  I’ve had enough flats on my other bikes to know that I needed to have a spare tube on hand, but it was still annoying as all Hell to have to stop, and I got cold while I stood there fixing it.  Still, the only real problem I had was when the rear chain ring got caught on the chain.  Turns out that it’s VERY hard to get the rear wheel off when you’re in first gear.  But luckily a kind passerby—and bike shop veteran!—stopped to help me hold the bike steady while I worked, and I eventually got it free, or else I’d probably still be standing there wrestling with it.

This is isn’t the first time I’ve flatted on my foldy, but it was the first time I’ve stopped and changed a flat in the street or had occasion to use the little hand-pump that’s stored in my foldy’s seat post.  Ingenious invention!  It took me maybe thirty seconds to get the tire inflated once I actually had the new inner tube installed and the rear wheel remounted on the back of the bike.  Nice design there.

Speaking of bikes, today was also the first time I’ve downloaded and listened to PodiumCafe.com’s semi-weekly podcast Bike Talk Radio.  It was a fun show if a bit of a downer given the fact that this episode focused on the doping allegations facing last year’s Tour de France winner Alberto Contador as well as a long-form interview given in recent months by disgraced Tour champion Floyd Landis.  I’ll spare you anything like analysis here, but if you’re interested in discussions of doping as a science in pro cycling, this episode is a pretty good primer.  With that said, the next episode promises to focus more on the start of the Spring cycling season in Europe and some of the coming Classics races.  That one will hopefully be a little more encouraging and entertaining.

And yeah, I gotta say that I LOVE podcasts.  Sally got me a new IPod Shuffle for Christmas, which was awesome because the new model shuffles can hold podcasts as well as songs.  Personally, I’m not much on all the new mobile phone technology, but I do lots of stuff where you can listen to the radio while you work, and so now I’m up to between five and ten podcasts per day depending on the day.  If you’re wondering, I subscribe to:

-          Marketplace (an NPR radio show from American Public Media)

-          Music City Miracles Radio (an SB*Nation podcast from MusicCityMiracles.com)

-          Bike Talk Radio

-          The Economist

-          Critical Hit  (a Major Spoilers D&D podcast)

-          Major Spoilers (comic review radio from the guys at MajorSpoilers.com)

-          Real Time with Bill Maher

-          Tri Talk Radio

-          ESPN Radio’s Football Today

-          The Official Wizards of the Coast D&D podcast

I recommend any and all of these, of course, but everyone in America should be required to listen to Marketplace and the Economist.

Finally, in the course of reading the news this morning, I stumbled upon the following on Slate.com:

"Non Sum Qualis Eram Bonae sub Regno Cynarae"

Last night, ah, yesternight, betwixt her lips and mine

There fell thy shadow, Cynara! thy breath was shed

Upon my soul between the kisses and the wine;

And I was desolate and sick of an old passion,

…Yea, I was desolate and bowed my head:

I have been faithful to thee, Cynara! in my fashion.

All night upon mine heart I felt her warm heart beat,

Night-long within mine arms in love and sleep she lay;

Surely the kisses of her bought red mouth were sweet;

But I was desolate and sick of an old passion,

…When I awoke and found the dawn was gray;

I have been faithful to thee, Cynara! in my fashion.

I have forgot much, Cynara! gone with the wind,

Flung roses, roses riotously with the throng,

Dancing, to put thy pale, lost lilies out of mind;

But I was desolate and sick of an old passion,

…Yea, all the time, because the dance was long;

I have been faithful to thee, Cynara! in my fashion.

I cried for madder music and for stronger wine,

But when the feast is finished and the lamps expire,

Then falls thy shadow, Cynara! the night is thine;

And I was desolate and sick of an old passion,

…Yea hungry for the lips of my desire:

I have been faithful to thee, Cynara! in my fashion.

—Ernest Dowson

Nice, no?  The quote in the title is from Horace.  I tell you that because I didn’t know it, so I assume that you didn’t either.