Re: RR: Darkest Suburbia

[Stephen Baker]

CC says:

<snip>

>I haven't
>smacked a single car with my palm all week.
>
>I'm going to get totally ****ing soft here.

Enjoy it while you can. ;-)

Steve

[JD]

(Corvus Corvax) wrote in message >...
> So it's over. We are no longer Manhattanites. Welcome to Buffalo. We
> were in a pub tonight having dinner, and we were chatting with a
> friendly bartender. I explained that we had just moved in from the
> city. He explained at some length how he had lived in the city for
> fifteen years, and rattled off all his old neighborhoods, names which
> meant nothing to me. Still a terminally clueless Manhattanite, I
> asked, "Which borough is that?"
>
> Heh. He didn't mean the same city.
>
> For the linguistically inclined, "Buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo
> buffalo" is a grammatical English sentence.
>
> I ride to work this morning, about 6 1/2 miles, on the fix. I've been
> commuting in all week, and hardly see another rider on the roads, much
> less anybody on a track bike. I'm already missing the Manhattan thing,
> where I would see at least one or two other riders running fixed every
> time I went out. No matter. We will be ambassadors of Manhattan fixie
> culture to the savages.
>
> I miss the conflict, too. This is ****ing boring. The drivers all have
> this bovine placidity. I'm clipping along at 19 or 20 on a four-lane
> suburban arterial. A street like this, out where Jimbo and Carla live,
> would inspire fear in the hardiest rider. In Buffalo, the cars drift
> down the highway like lily pads on a quiet stream. Dull. Stultifying.
> You couldn't pick a fight with these people if you tried. They just
> stare. I think human-powered vehicles are a strange and wondrous sight
> to them. I smile at them and line up with the cars at the stop light
> and I signal my turns. I am Mr. Polite And Vehicular. I haven't
> smacked a single car with my palm all week.
>
> I'm going to get totally ****ing soft here.
>
> CC

Welcome to Hell and lake effect.

JD

[[email protected]]

(Corvus Corvax) wrote in message >...
> So it's over. We are no longer Manhattanites. Welcome to Buffalo. We
> were in a pub tonight having dinner, and we were chatting with a
> friendly bartender. I explained that we had just moved in from the
> city. He explained at some length how he had lived in the city for
> fifteen years, and rattled off all his old neighborhoods, names which
> meant nothing to me. Still a terminally clueless Manhattanite, I
> asked, "Which borough is that?"
>
> Heh. He didn't mean the same city.
>
> For the linguistically inclined, "Buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo
> buffalo" is a grammatical English sentence.
>
> I ride to work this morning, about 6 1/2 miles, on the fix. I've been
> commuting in all week, and hardly see another rider on the roads, much
> less anybody on a track bike. I'm already missing the Manhattan thing,
> where I would see at least one or two other riders running fixed every
> time I went out. No matter. We will be ambassadors of Manhattan fixie
> culture to the savages.
>
> I miss the conflict, too. This is ****ing boring. The drivers all have
> this bovine placidity. I'm clipping along at 19 or 20 on a four-lane
> suburban arterial. A street like this, out where Jimbo and Carla live,
> would inspire fear in the hardiest rider. In Buffalo, the cars drift
> down the highway like lily pads on a quiet stream. Dull. Stultifying.
> You couldn't pick a fight with these people if you tried. They just
> stare. I think human-powered vehicles are a strange and wondrous sight
> to them. I smile at them and line up with the cars at the stop light
> and I signal my turns. I am Mr. Polite And Vehicular. I haven't
> smacked a single car with my palm all week.
>
> I'm going to get totally ****ing soft here.
>
> CC
>
> P.S. -- Enjoy Denver, Anthony.

The local riding scene will fill you in on Ellicotville. It's about
50 miles south of town on Route 219. The "Pale Ale Trail" near
Holliday Valley and Hollimont ski resorts was the site of one of
IMBA's epic rides last year. For your sake, I hope we don't have a
winter like last.

[Craig Brossman]

Corvus Corvax wrote:

> So it's over. We are no longer Manhattanites. Welcome to Buffalo. We
> were in a pub tonight having dinner, and we were chatting with a
> friendly bartender. I explained that we had just moved in from the
> city. He explained at some length how he had lived in the city for
> fifteen years, and rattled off all his old neighborhoods, names which
> meant nothing to me. Still a terminally clueless Manhattanite, I
> asked, "Which borough is that?"
>
> Heh. He didn't mean the same city.
>
> For the linguistically inclined, "Buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo
> buffalo" is a grammatical English sentence.
>
> I ride to work this morning, about 6 1/2 miles, on the fix. I've been
> commuting in all week, and hardly see another rider on the roads, much
> less anybody on a track bike. I'm already missing the Manhattan thing,
> where I would see at least one or two other riders running fixed every
> time I went out. No matter. We will be ambassadors of Manhattan fixie
> culture to the savages.
>
> I miss the conflict, too. This is ****ing boring. The drivers all have
> this bovine placidity. I'm clipping along at 19 or 20 on a four-lane
> suburban arterial. A street like this, out where Jimbo and Carla live,
> would inspire fear in the hardiest rider. In Buffalo, the cars drift
> down the highway like lily pads on a quiet stream. Dull. Stultifying.
> You couldn't pick a fight with these people if you tried. They just
> stare. I think human-powered vehicles are a strange and wondrous sight
> to them. I smile at them and line up with the cars at the stop light
> and I signal my turns. I am Mr. Polite And Vehicular. I haven't
> smacked a single car with my palm all week.
>
> I'm going to get totally ****ing soft here.
>
> CC
>
> P.S. -- Enjoy Denver, Anthony.
I lived in Binghamton, NY for about 2 years. I spent several weeks in
Grand Island on business on a couple of occasions since moving out west.
It was as bad as Binghamton.
If Buffalo is nearly as bad, I'ld start checking out monster.com right away.
Good luck.
--
Craig Brossman, Durango Colorado
(remove ".nospam" to reply)

[Jimbo(san)]

Corvus Corvax wrote:
> In Buffalo, the cars drift down the highway like lily pads on a quiet
> stream. Dull. Stultifying. You couldn't pick a fight with these people
> if you tried. They just stare. I think human-powered vehicles are a
> strange and wondrous sight to them. I smile at them and line up with
> the cars at the stop light and I signal my turns. I am Mr. Polite And
> Vehicular. I haven't smacked a single car with my palm all week.
> CC
> P.S. -- Enjoy Denver, Anthony.



Yeah kinda strange isn't it? You could always head up to Toronto for
some urban cycling experience... Oh wait forget it they are bike
friendly... Nothing like LI/NJ drivers up there either! Hey enjoy the
peace and quiet!



Jimbo(san)



--
>--------------------------<
Posted via cyclingforums.com
http://www.cyclingforums.com

[Corvus Corvax]

Craig Brossman > wrote
>
> I lived in Binghamton, NY for about 2 years. I spent several weeks in
> Grand Island on business on a couple of occasions since moving out west.
> It was as bad as Binghamton.
> If Buffalo is nearly as bad, I'ld start checking out monster.com right away.
> Good luck.

Strangely enough, I find that these old forgotten rust belt cities
like Buffalo or Pittsburgh or Cleveland can have an astonishingly high
quality of life. Real estate and groceries are cheap, the air is
clean, people are friendly, the pace of life is very relaxed. As long
as you can make a steady living, you can live really well. However,
unlike Pittsburgh, Buffalo never had any kind of economic revival
after the steel mills closed, and downtown is postively
post-apocalyptic. But right now, that's ok with me. Even in Manhattan,
I preferred dive bars over the high-zoot lifestyle anyway. Mostly. The
forlorn, decayed city suits my mood these days, and I think I can be
happy here.

But, man, people here are amazingly fat. Not as bad as Wisconsin, but
still pretty bad. That's one thing I really, really miss about
Colorado is the women. Colorado has the best looking chix in the
country. Lean, atheletic, slightly hippie. I'd love to live in
Durango, but you know what? If everybody who wanted to live in Durango
actually moved to Durango, Durango would suck. Look at Denver. Or
Aspen. I would rather live in Buffalo than be yet another one of those
asshole yuppies who builds his McMansion outside some lovely little
town in Colorado and then gets all up in arms over all the other
yuppies moving in and building McMansions. (This is hypothetical, of
course, as I can't afford a house like that anyway.) It's enough for
me that guys like you and JD live there. I'll come up and ride next
summer.

CC

[Corvus Corvax]

wrote .
>
> The local riding scene will fill you in on Ellicotville. It's about
> 50 miles south of town on Route 219. The "Pale Ale Trail" near
> Holliday Valley and Hollimont ski resorts was the site of one of
> IMBA's epic rides last year. For your sake, I hope we don't have a
> winter like last.

Thanks. I'll check it out.

CC

[Clyde_in_TN]

Corvus Corvax wrote:
>Colorado has the best looking chix in the
> country.

I dunno... I've had my head turned more than a few times by the ladies
down here... No, not in the city limits, but out in the county,
Collierville, Germantown, etc., Day'um!

[Skokatt]

Clyde_in_TN > wrote in news:N3_Ua.95066
:

> Corvus Corvax wrote:
> >Colorado has the best looking chix in the
>> country.
>
> I dunno... I've had my head turned more than a few times by the ladies
> down here... No, not in the city limits, but out in the county,
> Collierville, Germantown, etc., Day'um!
>
>

ya gotta love those southern women... I moved all over the US before
learning the most beautiful ones were right here at home in Mississippi.

--
- Chris -
www.skokatt.com
_____________________________

People say I'm cruel. But I have the heart of a small child.
In a jar. On my desk.

[Craig Brossman]

Corvus Corvax wrote:
> Craig Brossman > wrote
>
>>I lived in Binghamton, NY for about 2 years. I spent several weeks in
>>Grand Island on business on a couple of occasions since moving out west.
>>It was as bad as Binghamton.
>>If Buffalo is nearly as bad, I'ld start checking out monster.com right away.
>>Good luck.
>
>
> Strangely enough, I find that these old forgotten rust belt cities
> like Buffalo or Pittsburgh or Cleveland can have an astonishingly high
> quality of life. Real estate and groceries are cheap, the air is
> clean, people are friendly, the pace of life is very relaxed. As long
> as you can make a steady living, you can live really well. However,
> unlike Pittsburgh, Buffalo never had any kind of economic revival
> after the steel mills closed, and downtown is postively
> post-apocalyptic. But right now, that's ok with me. Even in Manhattan,
> I preferred dive bars over the high-zoot lifestyle anyway. Mostly. The
> forlorn, decayed city suits my mood these days, and I think I can be
> happy here.
>
> But, man, people here are amazingly fat. Not as bad as Wisconsin, but
> still pretty bad. That's one thing I really, really miss about
> Colorado is the women. Colorado has the best looking chix in the
> country. Lean, atheletic, slightly hippie. I'd love to live in
> Durango, but you know what? If everybody who wanted to live in Durango
> actually moved to Durango, Durango would suck. Look at Denver. Or
> Aspen. I would rather live in Buffalo than be yet another one of those
> asshole yuppies who builds his McMansion outside some lovely little
> town in Colorado and then gets all up in arms over all the other
> yuppies moving in and building McMansions. (This is hypothetical, of
> course, as I can't afford a house like that anyway.) It's enough for
> me that guys like you and JD live there. I'll come up and ride next
> summer.
>
> CC
I guess I wasn't very specific.
You are very correct, no/low crime, cheap everything ... But, exercise
to most folks I knew in Binghamton was going out for wings and beer, on
a heavy workout they would up the bump it up to non-filter cigs. Good,
friendly people, just not a very outdoor oriented or athletically
inclined. And the weather was always damp.

--
Craig Brossman, Durango Colorado
(remove ".nospam" to reply)

[Craig Brossman]

Corvus Corvax wrote:
> still pretty bad. That's one thing I really, really miss about
> Colorado is the women. Colorado has the best looking chix in the
> country. Lean, atheletic, slightly hippie. I'd love to live in
> Durango, but you know what? If everybody who wanted to live in Durango
> actually moved to Durango, Durango would suck. Look at Denver. Or
> Aspen. I would rather live in Buffalo than be yet another one of those
> asshole yuppies who builds his McMansion outside some lovely little
> town in Colorado and then gets all up in arms over all the other
> yuppies moving in and building McMansions. (This is hypothetical, of
> course, as I can't afford a house like that anyway.) It's enough for
> me that guys like you and JD live there. I'll come up and ride next
> summer.
>
> CC

I have to agree with everything here.
Women in Colorado; what always amazes me (but shouldn't) is how good
looks have no age boundries here. Women for 16 to 60 look great, very
atheletic, I see them on the trails all over town. Probably the same is
true for men as well, but it is never my focus :)I like to describe Mrs.
B. as one of those beautiful, athletic, "older" women, but of course I
am bias.

You are welcome anytime, just let us know whey you'll be here, we'll
roll out the red carpet, but of course it will be up hill to 11,000 feet.

--
Craig Brossman, Durango Colorado
(remove ".nospam" to reply)

[supabonbon]

(Stephen Baker) wrote in message >...
> CC says:
>
> <snip>
>
> >I haven't
> >smacked a single car with my palm all week.
> >
> >I'm going to get totally ****ing soft here.
>
> Enjoy it while you can. ;-)
>
> Steve

Yeah, well CC, I'll remember to feel sorry for you next time I dodge a
jaywalking pedestrian left, get doored by some dolt leaving a
bike-lane-parked taxi on the passenger side, flip ass-over-tits to
auger into 6th Ave, and have my leg run over by an yellow H2 driven by
a NJ resident talking on their cellphone.
Go ahead, get soft. NYC will should still be here if you decide your
adrenal gland and fright/fight/flight response is atrophied. You guys
always have a couch in Brooklyn.
/s

[Dave W]

On 28 Jul 2003 07:09:40 -0700, (Corvus Corvax)
wrote:

>Skokatt > wrote
>>
>> ya gotta love those southern women... I moved all over the US before
>> learning the most beautiful ones were right here at home in Mississippi.
>
>Southern chicks? Oh, please. Southern women make me utterly despair.
>All of these chicks who would otherwise be perfectly attractive pile
>on the makeup and mascara and get these freakish helmethead hairdos
>and generally make themselves into Stepford sorority girls. Bleccch. A
>nineteen year old woman doesn't need to trowel on the makeup to look
>beautiful, and it doesn't make a thirty-year-old look nineteen, just
>kind of desperate and pathetic.
>
>I stand by my assessment of Colorado.
>
>CC

Lived down here before have ya?...I didn't think so, cuz you are
absolutely incorrect in your assertion about southern women....

I'd go so far as saying you are way past having a clue ;-)

[Corvus Corvax]

(supabonbon) wrote
>
> Yeah, well CC, I'll remember to feel sorry for you next time I dodge a
> jaywalking pedestrian left, get doored by some dolt leaving a
> bike-lane-parked taxi on the passenger side, flip ass-over-tits to
> auger into 6th Ave, and have my leg run over by an yellow H2 driven by
> a NJ resident talking on their cellphone.

What, and you didn't get a ticket? Talk about getting soft...

CC

[[email protected]]

Craig Brossman > wrote in message >...
> wrote:
>
> > Craig Brossman > wrote in message >...
> >
> >>Corvus Corvax wrote:
> >>
> >>
> >>>So it's over. We are no longer Manhattanites. Welcome to Buffalo. We
> >>>were in a pub tonight having dinner, and we were chatting with a
> >>>friendly bartender. I explained that we had just moved in from the
> >>>city. He explained at some length how he had lived in the city for
> >>>fifteen years, and rattled off all his old neighborhoods, names which
> >>>meant nothing to me. Still a terminally clueless Manhattanite, I
> >>>asked, "Which borough is that?"
> >>>
> >>>Heh. He didn't mean the same city.
> >>>
> >>>For the linguistically inclined, "Buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo
> >>>buffalo" is a grammatical English sentence.
> >>>
> >>>I ride to work this morning, about 6 1/2 miles, on the fix. I've been
> >>>commuting in all week, and hardly see another rider on the roads, much
> >>>less anybody on a track bike. I'm already missing the Manhattan thing,
> >>>where I would see at least one or two other riders running fixed every
> >>>time I went out. No matter. We will be ambassadors of Manhattan fixie
> >>>culture to the savages.
> >>>
> >>>I miss the conflict, too. This is ****ing boring. The drivers all have
> >>>this bovine placidity. I'm clipping along at 19 or 20 on a four-lane
> >>>suburban arterial. A street like this, out where Jimbo and Carla live,
> >>>would inspire fear in the hardiest rider. In Buffalo, the cars drift
> >>>down the highway like lily pads on a quiet stream. Dull. Stultifying.
> >>>You couldn't pick a fight with these people if you tried. They just
> >>>stare. I think human-powered vehicles are a strange and wondrous sight
> >>>to them. I smile at them and line up with the cars at the stop light
> >>>and I signal my turns. I am Mr. Polite And Vehicular. I haven't
> >>>smacked a single car with my palm all week.
> >>>
> >>>I'm going to get totally ****ing soft here.
> >>>
> >>>CC
> >>>
> >>>P.S. -- Enjoy Denver, Anthony.
> >>
> >>I lived in Binghamton, NY for about 2 years. I spent several weeks in
> >>Grand Island on business on a couple of occasions since moving out west.
> >>It was as bad as Binghamton.
> >>If Buffalo is nearly as bad, I'ld start checking out monster.com right away.
> >>Good luck.
> >
> >
> >
> > Just wondering what was "bad" about your stay in the area?
> Sorry,
> I realize I was not very specific. I replied to Mr. Corvax, but I will
> add, that I was fresh out of graduate school, with money for the first
> time in my life. Newly married, just spent 2 years out west in graduate
> school, also for the first time in my life. I grew up in Reading PA and
> went to undergrad near there. When I got to the west, enjoyed the
> outdoors, the activities, the people, I knew it was the place for me. I
> took the job in Binghamton for several reasons, but all of the sudden I
> was back in that "rust" belt lifestyle, smoking, no exercise ...The
> weather depressed me, the Binghamton area does not have any kind of
> nitelife, though you can find a corner bar on any given nite which
> offers $0.10 wings and cheap beer.
> Perhaps Binghamton was not so bad, but after my great experience out
> west, and all those years growing up in the east, I had to get back.
> Strangly, my 2nd (and successful) wife, who grew up in Allentown PA,
> feels exactly the same way. We met and married in Boulder.
>
> I've read your posts and believe that you live in Erie. My younger
> brothers spent several years there. I don't know if the town was that
> bad, but they are in construction and complained about the snow and cold
> all the time. They have lived in Mesa AZ for 8 years or so now and
> haven't looked back. So does my mom. My dad lives here in Durango near
> me. Maybe it is genetic.
>
> Maybe too much information :)

After this winter, I have seen a record number of homes for sale in
our area. Our snowfall this past season was the second greatest since
records have been kept. The one and only bike mechanic that I have
ever trusted even moved to Florida, which had to have much to do with
his wife, because even though Erie sure is far from a mtb mecca, a
short trip to SW NY gets you to some of the most highly acclaimed
singletrack in the East, and this guy was one of the most well known,
hard core riders and racers in our area. After visiting the likes of
Chicago and NYC, I appreciate living here more then I ever have.
Don't get me wrong, I could very well make NYC home, but there's never
a problem with overpacked buses, endless traffic jams, etc. Yep, it
snows here, and the people that complain the most are those who have
lived here all their lives and have probably had ample opportunities
to leave, but don't. I love the four seasons, as long as the seasons
don't overlap into other seasons.

[supabonbon]

(Corvus Corvax) wrote in message >...
> (supabonbon) wrote
> >
> > Yeah, well CC, I'll remember to feel sorry for you next time I dodge a
> > jaywalking pedestrian left, get doored by some dolt leaving a
> > bike-lane-parked taxi on the passenger side, flip ass-over-tits to
> > auger into 6th Ave, and have my leg run over by an yellow H2 driven by
> > a NJ resident talking on their cellphone.
>
> What, and you didn't get a ticket? Talk about getting soft...
>
> CC

I didn't want to hex myself.
/s

[JD]

wrote in message >...
> The one and only bike mechanic that I have
> ever trusted even moved to Florida, which had to have much to do with
> his wife, because even though Erie sure is far from a mtb mecca, a
> short trip to SW NY gets you to some of the most highly acclaimed
> singletrack in the East, and this guy was one of the most well known,
> hard core riders and racers in our area.

I vote this as the most ridiculous sentence of the year in am-b (so
far) for many obvious reasons.

JD

[Carla A-G]

"JD" > wrote in message
om...
> Clyde_in_TN > wrote in message
>...
> > Corvus Corvax wrote:
> > >Colorado has the best looking chix in the
> > > country.
> >
> > I dunno... I've had my head turned more than a few times by the ladies
> > down here... No, not in the city limits, but out in the county,
> > Collierville, Germantown, etc., Day'um!
>
> Sho nuff.
>
> JD

White trash???

Red-neck specials????

- CA-G

Can-Am Girls Kick Ass!

[Clyde_in_TN]

JD wrote:

> Clyde_in_TN > wrote in message >...
>
>>Corvus Corvax wrote:
>> >Colorado has the best looking chix in the
>>
>>>country.
>>
>>I dunno... I've had my head turned more than a few times by the ladies
>>down here... No, not in the city limits, but out in the county,
>>Collierville, Germantown, etc., Day'um!
>
>
> Sho nuff.

Or, I just been away from my wife for too long ;-(

[Clyde_in_TN]

Carla A-G wrote:

> White trash???
>
> Red-neck specials????

Every swabbie knows "Any port in a storm"


--
John G.

[Shaun Rimmer]

Huw Pritchard > wrote in message
.. .
> On Wed, 30 Jul 2003 10:02:12 -0700, JD did issue forth:
>
> > I vote this as the most ridiculous sentence of the year in am-b (so far)
> > for many obvious reasons.
>
> I would set out to prove you wrong there, but I really can't be bothered
> Googling all of Rimmer's post since January.

Then don't. Prove him wrong by looking in your own outbox and posting a few
choice examples.

> Huw "Feeling provocative today" Pritchard

Don't you provoke me, you provoker you.


Shaun aRe - Unprovoked.