I’m not saying Big Jonny was workin’ the system in order to pay for booze, medical bills and porn, but…
16 in Arizona charged with fake Katrina, Rita claims
Sixteen people in Arizona were indicted after federal and Arizona authorities said they claimed to be victims of Hurricane Katrina or Hurricane Rita.
Federal officials [...]

. . . to Jerry Thomas, “the Jupiter Olympus of the bar,” according to “The Bartender Who Started It All”, a story in today’s New York Times.
The tale’s jumping-off point is “Imbibe!” (Perigee Books, $23.95), a biography-slash-recipe book by David Wondrich, the drink correspondent for Esquire. Wondrich follows Thomas’s perigrinations from Sackets Harbor, N.Y., to [...]

Going worldwide with this one. For those of you who are traveling Europe, who might live in or near Munich or Germany… Keep an eye open. Also if you see this on ebay, post that it’s stolen and kick their ass in a dark alley.

Its a steel Singular singlespeeed, with a sweet ritchey rear hub, [...]

from Reuters :
Bike-riding suicide bomber kills 30 Iraqi police
By Ross Colvin
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – A suicide bomber on a bicycle killed 30 Iraqi policemen doing their morning exercises at a base north of Baghdad on Monday, in one of the deadliest strikes on security forces in months.
And a roadside bomb attack in Baghdad wounded a [...]

Seen this yet?
Jörg Jaksche claimed that Bjarne Riis threatened him if he spoke out on doping, he said at the “Play the Game” antidoping conference in Iceland this weekend. “If you talk, you will never come back in cycling, Riis told me. And stated that he would organize that I could never come back,” Jaksche [...]

A few things in the news lately. First up Condi is looking for help. It must make some Rethugs heads explode, or at the very least, catch fire to hear this.
[...]

Any idea where this is going? Inquiring minds want to know:
I looked into his eyes and saw into his soul.
But perhaps instead of tuning into Everybody Loves Raymond tonight, cuddle up with this little heart warmer: www.zeitgeistmovie.com

That something being a visual aid on how much money we are bleeding in Iraq.

Nine Million dollars … The pile is 5 feet tall, 10 feet long, and 6¼ feet wide. A single stack of dollar bills in this amount would be 3,000 feet high.
This horde is comparable in size to a single compact car. [...]

Oh yeah, that thing in July with more drug use than a dead show is still around for ‘08.
The Tour de France has been given a major overhaul for 2008 as organisers try to revamp the tarnished race.
Time bonuses have been scrapped and for the first time since 1966 the race will not start with [...]

From: Big Pun
Subject: Doctors save man with vodka drip
Where can I get some antifreeze?
news.bbc.co.uk

I got a fresh bottle in the garage I ain’t even cracked the label on. Come on through later and we’ll have ourselves a little party.
You and me and the bottle makes three tonight.

These are a few days late getting posted, so sue me. Happy Friday.
From: Snake
Subject: RE: Pines to the Mines
Just so you know I won the first cross race in PHX. I only took me 4 laps of the 9 to get back into the rhythm. Then it was full stick all [...]

A lap full of cat
All too soon, it is empty
The earth is hungry

This one is by Michael Bussman:
A former would-be major leaguer makes the play of a lifetime
It was august
High altitude heat
Very blue, very hot
We were in his sister’s seats
Four rows back, the left field pavilion
The ball wasn’t hit that hard
But Campbell knew it would go
He took off like a gazelle
Cleared three rows
As if in one leap
Hit [...]

See I live in Idaho so I don’t get out much. I mean I get our and ride a lot. But riding and cross racing have little to do with each other. In fact at times they are almost mutally exclusive. This time of year the question always goes, “you want [...]

I’m bringing back the Thursday Poems. This was printed in the Outcast about a year ago.
Outcast
I’ve never worked as a bike messenger.
Never delivered any packages for money.
Well, that’s not entirely true.
I have rode around with rather substantial amounts of drugs on my person.
On, as “in” a backpack.
That was for money.
A pay to play program, [...]

From today’s Los Angeles Times coverage of the Southern California wildfires:
Rod Percival, 46, coasted his mountain bike down Las Flores Canyon Road, his dog Ayla skittering behind him. Like many residents, Percival and his wife had refused to leave Malibu. Late Tuesday morning, he used his trusty bike to take stock, as best as he [...]

The Missoula man who fatally crashed his car into a 50-year-old bicyclist before fleeing the scene last April was sentenced Tuesday to 30 years in the Montana State Prison, the maximum punishment allowed by law.
Anthony Michael Dailey, 23, admitted last month to a felony count of vehicular homicide while under the influence for his role [...]

From: gob
Subject: another one
www2.tbo.com
When are we as cyclists going to realize that cars always win? So many people on so many group rides ride as if traffic laws don’t apply to them.
It needs to stop before some neaderthal in a pickup mows down an entire paceline.
Yo, I hear you on that one.
22 [...]

File this under “tell me something I didn’t know already”:
Philadelphia is home to the least attractive people in the United States, a survey of visitors and residents showed on Friday.
The city of more than 1.5 million people was also found to be among the least stylish, least active, least friendly and least worldly, according [...]

How many ways can I say I just don’t give a fuck.
I’m not asking. I’m telling.
I spent the night out in the garage fucking around with a few of the bikes with a bottle of Plink for company. It was cold, so I wore clogs. Ever the fashion leader, I fully expect [...]