RIDING HIGH

AP
64 words
12 July 2003
The Commercial Appeal
Final
DS4
English
Copyright (c) 2003 Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company. All
rights reserved.

Mississippi State University employee 'Jim Schrock'
(http://tinyurl.com/gvc3) was riding high Friday as he negotiated his
way across the Starkville campus on his 6-foot Schwinn unicycle. Schrock
is lab operations superintendent for MSU's Department of Aerospace
Engineering, which is part of the Bagley College of Engineering. He also
is a member of the local unicycle club.
==============================================

Raphael Lasar
Matawan, NJ


--
JJuggle - Last of the Dogmato-Revisionists

Well, we have to find out right now,
what kind of ice cream do these martians like.
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POLICE HUNT UNICYCLE THIEF

107 words
11 July 2003
Newsquest Media Group Newspapers: This is the North East
English
c Copyright 2003 Newsquest Digital Media.

POLICE are looking for a thief who stole a unicycle from a shed.

The silver machine, with a red-and-black seat, was taken, along with an
old air rifle, from the house in Eppleby, near Richmond.

The owner is a member of a local circus troupe and, although the
burglary took place on June 30, details were only released yesterday.

"The thief would probably be a tad conspicuous if he used the unicycle
himself," said a police spokesman.

Anyone who knows anything about the raid or may have been offered such a
bike is asked to contact police on (01609) 783131.
==============================================

Raphael Lasar
Matawan, NJ


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JJuggle - Last of the Dogmato-Revisionists

Well, we have to find out right now,
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JJuggle wrote:
> *RIDING HIGH
>
> AP
> 64 words
> 12 July 2003
> The Commercial Appeal
> Final
> DS4
> English
> Copyright (c) 2003 Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company. All
> rights reserved.
>
> Mississippi State University employee 'Jim Schrock'
> (http://tinyurl.com/gvc3) was riding high Friday as he negotiated his
> way across the Starkville campus on his 6-foot Schwinn unicycle.
> Schrock is lab operations superintendent for MSU's Department of
> Aerospace Engineering, which is part of the Bagley College of
> Engineering. He also is a member of the local unicycle club.
> ==============================================
>
> Raphael Lasar
> Matawan, NJ *
The neat thing that the link brings out is that Jim Schrock helps build
experimental aircraft and is a tenor, which is the highest male vocal
range; by adding riding a giraffe he's an all-round high guy.


--
U-Turn - Mounting a Revolution

Weep in the dojo... laugh in the battlefield.

'Strongest Coker Wheel in the World'
(http://www.unicyclist.com/gallery/albup39)

-- Dave Stockton
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U-Turn wrote:
> *and is a tenor, which is the highest male vocal range*
You mean you've never heard of Michael Aspinall, the Surprising
Soprano?

[image: http://www.durbeckarchive.com/images/parody10.jpg]

Raphael Lasar
Matawan, NJ


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No, I haven't.

:(


--
U-Turn - Mounting a Revolution

Weep in the dojo... laugh in the battlefield.

'Strongest Coker Wheel in the World'
(http://www.unicyclist.com/gallery/albup39)

-- Dave Stockton
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In article >,
U-Turn > writes:

> a tenor, which is the highest male vocal range
>

....apart from countertenor and castrato... and if you
have a viscount saddle, you know that the last one is no
joke.

================================================== ==========
Gardner Buchanan >
Ottawa, ON FreeBSD: Where you want to go. Today.

'One wheel is enough' (http://tinyurl.com/h51r).

Raphael Lasar
Matawan, NJ


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JJuggle - Last of the Dogmato-Revisionists

Hey punk where you going with those beads around your neck?
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JJuggle wrote:
> *'One wheel is enough' (http://tinyurl.com/h51r).
> Raphael Lasar *


Awesome Article Raphael. Great looking kid too. He has "confident"
written all over him. --chirokid--


--
chirokid
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UNICYCLE UNITY DRAWS MEMBERS OF NEW VISION

SHIRLEY DANG - The Oregonian
757 words
17 July 2003
The Oregonian
SUNRISE
10
English
Copyright (c) 2003 Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company. All
rights reserved.

BEAVERTON

Summary: The One-Wheeled Wonders come together for practice before their
performance in a Beaverton parade

The church that prays together, unicycles together.

That philosophy led 11-year-old Laura and 9-year-old Allison Millar to
the One-Wheeled Wonders, a unicycling group from the New Vision
Fellowship church that will take its place July 19 in the Beaverton
SummerFest Parade.

The group debuted at the event two summers ago, a trail of streamers
fluttering from the cycles' spokes. Laura recalls falling off her yellow
Jugglebug model nearly 10 times last year when she tackled the 2-mile
route for her inaugural ride.

"You definitely get tired after a 2-mile parade," Laura said.

They meet regularly

The Wonders count about 25 members, many of them groups of young
siblings or whole families. They meet regularly at 3:30 p.m. each Sunday
to practice.

Pastor Gene Grass started the group four years ago, channeling his love
of the unicycle to his parish: one wheel, under God.

Occasionally, Grass delivers sermons while idling on his unicycle and
juggling balls. He uses his props to demonstrate various life lessons:
balancing one's responsibilities or having patience.

"I just did it a few weeks ago on endurance," Grass said. "The unicycle
isn't something you learn overnight. It takes endurance."

Laura learned to ride from Grass two years ago on a church loaner. The
seat is swathed in the requisite towel, for comfort, and wound with duct
tape.

Each week, Grass came to the Millar driveway in Hyland Hills.
Eventually, Laura started holding on to her father's car as he chugged
slowly down the street. At the end of her journey, she marked the curb
with chalk, leaving a series of tick marks on the street.

"Every day would be a new record," Laura said.

Stopping takes skill

After learning the crucial skill of stopping -- which essentially
consists of falling forward and catching the seat before it hits the
ground -- Laura is learning to turn, idle and pedal backward.

On a side street near the Millar house, the girls' mother, Anne, holds
out one hand. Laura grasps it, tucks the seat under her blue stretch
pants and pedals haltingly in reverse.

"If you've been unicycling forward for a long time, it feels really
weird going backwards," she said.

Many church members live near the Millars, bringing a whole fleet of
unicycles to the quiet suburban streets.

"It's not unusual to see a one-wheeled rider in this neighborhood," Anne
Millar said. "We're just infested with unicycles."

Friend Julie Liggins counts three boys out of her five children as
unicyclers, with another rider on the way.

"My daughter, who's 6, said she wants a unicycle for Christmas," Liggins
said.

Her son R.J., 13, pioneered the family's obsession four years ago when
he started his one-wheeled hobby. He has mastered the skill so well he
can play saxophone at the same time, as he did in last year's parade.
His 11-year-old brother, Rob, picked up the unicycle soon after, and
8-year-old Alex began in kindergarten.

Rob, an athlete, said unicycling does not compete with his love of other
sports. In fact, he likes to combine them.

"I play basketball and football," Rob said. "I've played both on a
unicycle."

Grass said unicycling helps give families time together to learn
something new, sometimes about each other. And mastering an obscure
skill can be great for kids.

"It's a confidence booster," Grass said. "Maybe they haven't excelled at
something, or maybe they're real studious and kids make fun of them."

All that disappears when the congregation pedals duct-taped vehicles
behind the church each Sunday afternoon, he said.

"One of the neat things is I've got people at all different levels,"
Grass said. "The others encourage them and say, 'I've been there.' "

Laura loves unicycling in a group, to pick up tips or see who's learning
to do tricks such as the bunny hop. It's nice that just being on one
wheel can get you attention, she said.

But she takes an almost Zen view of riding mono.

"I don't think there's a best or worst thing," she said. "You just get
up and go."


--
JJuggle - Last of the Dogmato-Revisionists

Hey punk where you going with those beads around your neck?
Well, I'm going to see my shrink so he can help me be a nervous wreck.
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JJuggle wrote:
>
>
> MOUNTAIN RUNNING
>
> Any one of the thousands of trekkers who've been to Everest Base Camp
> can tell you about the effects of altitude around the Khumbu. It's
> difficult enough to breathe the thin oxygen without adding to your
> woes by running along the tracks. But, each 18 months, including this
> November, that's exactly what happens with the Everest Marathon,
> officially listed as the world's highest marathon. The marathon begins
> 5000 metres above sea level, at Gorak Shep in the shadow of Everest,
> and follows trekkers' routes down into Namche Bazaar. Forty-two
> kilometres of Himalayan hardship that takes even the best and fittest
> about four hours.
>
> The Everest Marathon is a high point - literally - of the world of
> mountain running, but it's far from unique. The Brits have been
> mountain running - or "fell running" as they call it - for years, and
> now the great adventure-racing nation of New Zealand has taken
> wholeheartedly to the high sport. Across the Tasman, there are dozens
> of events each year, some along New Zealand's most famous walking
> routes, such as the Abel Tasman and Kepler Track. Indeed, New
> Zealand's Jonathon Wyatt has won three of the last five World Mountain
> Running Championships, an annual title "run" since 1985. The
> championships will be held this year in Alaska in September.
>
> [/B]


Yeah, go Jonathan- he's our local hero.

And I would love to do the Everest Marathon on a MUni. I'm not sure how
much of the Everest Trek is rideable though. Does anyone know? I spent
most of the time carrying my MUni along the Annapurna Circuit in Nepal
last year.


--
GizmoDuck - One Wheel Drive

My bum was really sore and they made me jump up and down and up and down
and up and down in front of this kid who was laughing at me!
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Amusing if not complimentary.

SCRAP THE SCOOTER

Johanna Huden
397 words
3 August 2003
New York Post
23
English
(c) 2003 N.Y.P. Holdings, Inc. All rights reserved.

IF I got a free Segway trial, I'd probably give it a scoot, too. But is
the NYPD serious about the "human transport system"?

You have to wonder what Mayor Mike's smoking if he plans on paying money
for yet another annoying, traffic-impeding, unnecessary and just plain
weird mode of transportation on New York's congested streets.

Midtown seems to be overrun with pedicabs this summer. But the smiling,
fresh-faced college students who pull them can't be chatting with any
real New Yorkers, because you won't catch one taking this touristy,
uncool ride.

And you have to laugh when you see a grown man in a suit weaving one of
those ridiculous personal scooters up Sixth Avenue.

Are our tough men and women in blue really going to hop on one of these
12 mph silly-looking Segways?

Not if they hope to intimidate the bad guys. These contraptions look
like they should have pink streamers and Hello Kitty stickers on them,
not our big, brave keepers-of-the-peace.

Could you imagine the jeers from a street crowd in The Bronx if an
officer pulled a President Bush and went toppling head-first to the
ground while pursuing a gangmember?

Officer Chintua Alozie of the Manhattan Traffic Task Force told The
Post, "You park it and go after the criminal." Then what's the point?

"It has a bicycle lock if necessary." You stop it, lock it and then
chase?

Even locked, the Segway only weighs 90 pounds, so you can bet that some
enterprising thief will steal it, leaving the tired officer flat-footing
it back to the precinct.

And can the Segway handle city potholes, metal grates and plates, horse
dung and slow tourists? Some cars, even SUVs, can't, so how is this
elongated tricycle (which doesn't meet state safety standards) supposed
to tackle our rugged roads?

Its job is to reach off-road areas and maneuver in heavy traffic.

Um, that would describe the bicycle. Which is faster, cheaper, available
and doesn't make our police force look like they're: a) lazy, b)
physically (even mentally!) challenged, or c) as Hans and Franz would
say, "big sissy man on zer big girly unicycle."

==============================================

Raphael Lasar
Matawan, NJ


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It's not against any religion,
to want to dispose of a pigeon.
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JJuggle wrote:
> *Amusing if not complimentary.
>
> Raphael Lasar
> Matawan, NJ *


or accurate!!!


--
GILD - Waffle-tosser

If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least
once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things.
-- Rene Descartes
'pleez check this out' (http://www.reuniteluna.com/)

JUST SAY 'KNOW'!

Namaste!
Dave
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GILD wrote:
> *or accurate!!! *
I was actually referring to the very last sentence. :)

Raphael Lasar
Matawan, NJ


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PERFORMER FIRED UP ABOUT JUGGLING ** WADE HENRY CASHED IN BUSINESS
CAREER TO TOUR WORLD WITH HIS \"SUICYCLE.' ** FRASS AT THE FAIR

By Mike Frassinelli Of The Morning Call
629 words
27 August 2003
The Allentown Morning Call
FIRST
B1
English
Copyright 2003, Allentown Morning Call. All Rights Reserved.

MIKE FRASSINELLI, a reporter for The Morning Call, prepares to throw a
series of flaming torches up to juggler Wade Henry, seated on a
basketball hoop-high unicycle at the Allentown Fair.

Wade Henry -- yes, the Wade Henry way up there juggling burning torches
while riding his 10-foot-tall unicycle -- planned for a sensible career.


He went to a sensible college in his native Canada.

He used his sensible business degree to land a sensible 9 to 5 office
job in marketing.

So what was he doing wearing a floppy leather pilot hat and juggling
fire while riding what he calls his "suicycle" in front of a crowd that
assembled on the midway Tuesday night at the Allentown Fair?

He was continuing the career that turned out to make the most sense to
him after all: the career of traveling around the world to make people
laugh.

He left his office job nearly a decade ago to travel with a buddy, but
returned to his college hobby of street performing when they ran out of
cash in Australia.

Henry, 33, who now hails from Clearwater, Fla., is as good a street
performer as you will see. Back by popular demand at the fair this year,
he juggles chain saws, balls and the emotions of a crowd. He swallows
fire and 4-foot-long balloons. He rides a unicycle that has a chair
about the height of a professional basketball rim.

And, in his most amazing feat, the married father of one had enough
trust to let me throw fire at him Tuesday night.

During the audience participation portion of the show, Henry called up
Ron from Fogelsville ("Ron came all the way from Pennsylvania, wooooo"),
me and a guy named Eric to help steady the unicycle while Henry climbed
up it.

Henry sat first on my shoulders, acting surprised that he hadn't yet
reached the top of the unicycle.

Following his advice, at the count of three we let go of the unicycle,
turned in the other direction -- and ran like heck.

As Henry stabilized himself on the unicycle, he called out: "No
steering. No brakes. No insurance."

He called me back again to help him with his torch juggling.

He wanted me to light three torches -- juggling pins with cloth wicks.
He pulled a lighter out of his pocket and held it for me to grab -- but
held it just above my reach, prompting me to jump like a child trying to
retrieve a ball in a game of monkey in the middle.

A few more laughs were had at my expense when the lighter turned out to
be a dud.

I finally got three torches lit. Now it was time to throw them one by
one to Henry.

It was starting to get windy and I could feel the heat against my arm
hair.

Henry emphasized: "Mike, one at a time Not like the last guy!"

Using the bent-elbow throwing motion Henry showed me earlier, at the
count of three I gave him a nice chest-high toss that was easy -- for
him -- to catch.

The other two throws were on target, too, although I could have sworn I
smelled burning arm hair after the third toss.

Relieved that I didn't play Mrs. O'Leary's cow to the hay-filled barn
that was the Allentown Fair midway, I thought my participation was over.


Henry spotted a cute child in the first row.

"Now, Mike," he said from way up on his unicycle. "Throw me the baby."


--
JJuggle - Last of the Dogmato-Revisionists

Cut up, Maria!
Show me some of them Spanish dances.
Pass me the bottle, Mr Jones.
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VICTOR LEWIS-SMITH'S COLUMN - POINTLESS BOOK OF RECORDS.

By Victor Lewis-Smith.
555 words
23 August 2003
Mirror
6
English
(c) 2003 Mirror Group Ltd

THERE are people called physiognomists, who make a scientific study of
the human face.

But I may well be the world's only gastro-physiognomist, specialising in
celebrity boat races that are so unpleasant they turn my stomach.

There's Ruby Wax, who has a face like a bulldog licking p*** off a
nettle, and who is so in my face when she's on TV that I feel like the
nettle.

Then there's Antony Worrall Thompson, half-chipmunk and half-Munchkin
(with the emphasis on munch, to judge from his expanding girth).

Nor should we forget Norris McWhirter, whose face bears the permanently
pained expression of a man sucking a lemon, and who is so starchy that,
if he stood alongside dead brother Ross, he'd still be the straight man.


McWhirter's name will always be synonymous with the Guinness Book Of
Records, that literary lemon he edited for some 40 years.

I've long regarded it as a stomach-turning exercise of mind-numbing
futility, whose sole purpose is to give ill-deserved media attention to
overgrown schoolboys, whose sole accomplishment in life involves sitting
in a bath of custard or *unicycling around the Isle Of Man.*

So the 14 members of the Kabosh Theatre who crammed themselves into an
Edinburgh telephone box this week must have been astonished when a
spokeswoman for the Guinness Book said that, "We no longer recognise
records for people in phone boxes", on the grounds that it is not a
sufficiently serious enterprise.

Really? Well, if the editors start regarding seriousness of purpose as a
criterion for entry, their next edition is going to be the thinnest
volume since The Pop-Up Book Of Saddam's WMDs.

But what a pity they didn't announce that policy back in the early 60s,
because I wouldn't then have had to endure a childhood blighted by
attention-seeking idiots pushing peas with their noses from London to
Norwich in a bid to get an entry.

Nor would we have to put up with tedious stuntmen like David Blaine, who
is proposing to spend 44 days locked in a glass case suspended over the
River Thames, and expects us to watch him just because it'll be a world
record.

Even worse than the Guinness Book was its televisual spin-off, Record
Breakers, on which people were actively encouraged to perform such
pointless feats.

Indeed, I once saw the McWhirter brothers cramming 70 children into a
Mini, in exactly the sort of imbecilic exploit that the publishers of
the book now claim to eschew. At this point, I should confess that in my
younger days I wrote numerous letters to Mr McWhirter in a bid to be
included in his book.

But my attempts were always satirical, such as the time I asked to be
included as "the first journalist to libel himself in print, then sue
his newspaper for damages" after I'd used my column to call myself, "A
fat, ugly, untalented hack with hair like a slashed sofa, diarrhoea of
the mouth and constipation of the ideas".

Come to think of it, I've just done the same thing again, so the
Mirror's lawyers can expect a writ on Monday.


--
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Show me some of them Spanish dances.
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Don't see that anyone posted this article on 'Unicycle.com'
(http://tinyurl.com/ll2y) and John Drummond.

It's from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Raphael Lasar
Matawan, NJ


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ON ONE WHEEL FOR SICK KIDS

Fiona Byrne
191 words
5 October 2003
Sunday Herald Sun
1 - FIRST
111
English
(c) 2003 Herald and Weekly Times Limited

SAMUEL Johnson will fulfil a 12-year-old pledge when he rides a unicycle
from Sydney to Melbourne later this month.

Johnson, the sometimes controversial star of The Secret Life of Us,
tells the November issue of B. magazine, on sale tomorrow, he will make
the unusual journey to raise funds for CanTeen, a support organisation
for young people affected by cancer.

Johnson was 11 when his older sister, Constance, a disability support
worker, was diagnosed with bone cancer.

She has made a full recovery, but the years she spent having treatment
and battling the disease had a profound effect on Johnson.

"When I was 14, I told CanTeen I'd ride a unicycle from Sorrento to
Melbourne -- that's about 60km," Johnson (pictured above with his sister
in B) tells the magazine.

"I've modified the idea over the years. I thought if I unicycle from
Sydney to Melbourne, people would be interested in the story."

Johnson will leave Sydney on October 24 and plans to arrive in Melbourne
at Federation Square on November 25.

==============================================

Raphael Lasar
Matawan, NJ


--
JJuggle - Last of the Dogmato-Revisionists

I believe in the Power of Good
I Believe in the State of Love
I Will Fight For the Right to be Right
I Will Kill for the Good of the Fight for the Right to be Right

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GOING OFF ROAD, ON ONE WHEEL ; A MOUNTAIN UNICYCLING CLUB

ABIGAIL LEICHMAN, STAFF WRITER
1,101 words
2 October 2003
The Record
All Editions.=.Two Star B. Two Star P. One Star B
U03
English
Copyright (c) 2003 Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company. All
rights reserved.

Scott Bridgman's unicycle obsession began with a wheelchair.

A fellow mountain-biker who'd injured his ankle demonstrated a
wheelchair wheelie to Bridgman and invited him to try. But he couldn't
manage even one.

So disturbed was Bridgman at his lack of athletic prowess that, at age
44, he got himself a unicycle and determined to learn how to ride it.
His girlfriend, Jennie Bruno, also went one-wheeled.

Now, the two Morristown residents are part of a group that regularly
takes their unicycles off road in the off-beat sport of mountain
unicycling -- MUni for short.

"It's kind of an unusual sport," Bridgman concedes. But he insists it's
not extreme. Mountain unicyclists go only 1 or 2 mph and are suited up
with safety in mind.

"MUni is the act of riding over rough or uneven terrain on a unicycle
specially designed for the task," he explains on his Web site,
muniac.com.

"The challenge is to maintain balance and control while moving through
terrain that may include ... single track, sand, dirt, mud, streams,
logs, log buildups, roots, rocks, bridges, drops, snow, ice, grass,
uphills, and downhills."

Bruno says they bought their unicyles hoping that improved balance would
come in handy in skiing season. "We spent all of the summer of 1999
trying to beat this skill into our heads," she recalls. "After a lot of
bruises and scrapes, we figured it out."

And they were right about the balance factor: "For those out there that
are looking for an off-season balance sport to keep you in shape, MUni
is perfect," Bridgman contends.

But it was not easy to master. The trick was installing a bar along a
20-foot wall of their basement, which allowed them to slide along as
they practiced. They also picked up tips in Jack Wiley's "The Unicycle
Book."

Bridgman recalls that by July, a month after starting, they were ready
to venture beyond the basement. "After a dozen attempts with an assisted
start on smooth, level pavement, I managed to ride a very wobbly 50 feet
before dumping off. That first ride gave me the confidence to know I
could do it. Unicycling is so addictive once you get past that first
ride."

By November of that year, the pair had learned about MUni on the
Internet and wanted to try it. "We decided to get a Web site going,
figuring that maybe somebody else might be crazy like us," Bridgman
says. "Lo and behold, we started to get some interest. Now we have 12
people in the group."

The group, which rides about once a week unless the ground is too wet or
snowy, includes two men from Manhattan, one from Caldwell, one from
Cresskill, one from South Jersey, and two from Livingston.

Bruno remains the only female, and the ages range from early 20s to late
40s. But they all have one thing in common aside from their unicycles:
Every one of them has a technical job.

"We seem to enjoy the challenges and technicalities of what's required
to ride off road," says Bridgman. "You have to be able to do movements
rapidly and correct your balance constantly on a surface area the size
of a half dollar."

Bridgman is an electrical engineer who makes specialty design and
fabrication work with plastics and metals, a skill he has parlayed into
custom unicycle accessories he sells on his Web site.

Jeff Prosa, 24, of Cresskill, is a computer programmer. He says he once
spotted a guy unicycling across the Queensboro Bridge and decided to buy
one. "My friend and I became obsessed with it because it's so difficult
to ride," he says. "Even just trying to sit on it is difficult because
your legs have to adjust to the pedals."

It's also a tiring workout. "I've done a lot of bicycle riding, and I
thought I was in pretty good shape," says Prosa. "But after one loop on
the unicycle, I was burned out."

Now, he says, his bike is sitting in the garage with flat tire. "The
unicycle is much more of a challenge, and I prefer riding in the woods."


Bridgman calls MUni a "grabber sport," and Bruno explains that riders
are always curious to see what they can accomplish next.

"The thrill is getting the hang of that bend, or getting over that root
that you couldn't do before," says the information systems analyst.
"It's also a social thing. I would love to have another woman in our
group."

****

(SIDEBAR, PAGE 003)

WHERE TO MUni

The North Jersey MUni Invitational II, scheduled for Friday through
Saturday, will include riders from as far away as California,
Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania. Each day's ride will last four to six
hours. Registration is required, writes Scott Bridgman on his Web site
(muniac.com), "but it's painless both to the wallet and body."

Bridgman's site also includes a list of state parks where he has tried
this sport, with commentary (muniac.com/trails.htm).

For instance, he writes that Ramapo Mountain State Forest has "six good
one-way runs" while Norvin Green State Park has "difficult terrain with
huge, slick rock formations."

Those who register with the site also get information on upcoming rides.


****

(SIDEBAR, PAGE 003)

MUni equipment

Expect to pay between $85 and $140 for a new 20-inch model. You can
check out bike stores or unicycle.com. Used equipment and custom
accessories are available on muniac.com.

Safety gear is a must, says Scott Bridgman. You'll need a good bike
helmet, good knee and shin pads, arm and elbow pads, and a back pad to
protect the tailbone. Padded cycling shorts and eye protection against
flying twigs and dirt also are recommended.

The slow speed helps keep down injuries, and unicyclists usually land on
their feet. But falls come with the territory.

"If you dump - I should say when you dump - you may have to tuck your
arms into your body and roll," says Bridgman. "Arm protection allows you
to roll out of a bad fall."

Bridgman's own worst "dump" to date resulted in a bloody knee rather
than a shattered kneecap, thanks to his pads. "Generally, the idea is to
confine injuries to bruises, bumps, and sprains."

Caption: ++++; PHOTO - A boulder is no obstacle for MUni enthusiast
Scott Bridgman. "The challenge is to maintain balance and control," he
says.
==============================================

Raphael Lasar
Matawan, NJ


--
JJuggle - Last of the Dogmato-Revisionists

I believe in the Power of Good
I Believe in the State of Love
I Will Fight For the Right to be Right
I Will Kill for the Good of the Fight for the Right to be Right

------------------------------------------------------------------------
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View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/22148

*One-wheeled wonders; Group to present Unicycle Tour de Leola*

Carole Deck, Correspondent
681 words
1 October 2003
Lancaster New Era/Intelligencer Journal/Sunday News
English
Copyright (c) 2003 Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company. All
rights reserved.

It's the first time for young unicyclists to present the Unicycle Tour
de Leola. But members of The C.L.U.B. (The County of Lancaster Unicycle
Balancers) are sure it won't be the last one.

The free event will take place Oct. 19 at Leola Elementary School, 11
School Drive, Leola.

More than 90 unicyclists from four elementary schools, one middle and
one high school are scheduled to take a 3-mile ride around Leola.

Twelve members of The C.L.U.B. from Conestoga Valley Middle School and
high school are participating in the event. Trainers for the midle
school and high school are David Ramos and Sam Gruss.

Other participants include Leola Elementary School -- Paul Hosler,
trainer; John R. Bonfield Elementary School, Lititz -- Jerry McDonald,
trainer; Paradise Elementary and Leacock Elementary -- Melissa Fritts,
trainer; Doe Run Elementary -- Steve Fink, trainer; and Highland
Elementary, Ephrata -- Cindi Hess, trainer.

"Our goal for the event is to have people recognize the growing sport of
unicycling," said Marti Beiler, who helped organize the event sponsored
by The C.L.U.B.

Registration starts at 2 p.m. at Leola Elementary School.

The tour route starts at Leola Elementary and travels through the Maple
Development (Sunset Avenue, Rose Avenue, Maple Avenue, Aspen Drive,
Magnolia Drive, Conestoga Avenue, Blaine Avenue) and ends back at the
school.

Paul Hosler will be grand marshal and will lead the riders. Hosler, a
Leola Elementary gym teacher, was instrumental in introducing unicycling
to students in Conestoga Valley School District.

Beiler emphasized that the tour isn't a race, and riders will ride at
their own pace. C.L.U.B. parents will bicycle along with the unicyclists
to provide assistance if needed.

Their will be a free performance at 5 p.m. in the Leola Elementary
School gym.

Hot dogs, chips, ice cream and beverages will be available from 3 to 5
p.m.

For Zach Wilson, 13, of Leola, riding a unicycle is more challenging
than riding a bicycle.

"You can do some really neat tricks... like side mounts, free mounts and
my favorite riding with one foot," Wilson said.

Most of the C.L.U.B. members began riding in fourth grade.

Marti Beiler's son, Jason, 15, leads the group routines and is a
national gold medallist. His aspiration is to compete in the
International unicycle competition held in Japan this summer.

The unicyclists ride on 20-inch and 24-inch wheels as they perform a
variety of routines to demonstrate their skills. The students think
doing the "Macarena" is more fun done on a unicycle.

Melissa Gates, 13, of Leola, believes balance and confidence are
necessary to succeed in the sport.

"It takes persistence and practice.... You fall a lot while learning,"
Gates said.

"Ride through life... on one wheel" is The C.L.U.B. motto.

Krystle Chocker, 13, of Leola, is credited with the catchy motto that's
featured on their T-shirts.

"I hope lots of people come to our performance. It's entertainment and
sports combined," Chocker said.

For some students, learning to ride a unicycle made a difference in how
they viewed sports.

Christina Tabraham, 14, admitted it was a sport she could do and really
liked.

"I'm not into competitive sports. I unicycle because I enjoy it,"
Tabraham said.

According to Marti Beiler, C.L.U.B. members benefit from their trainers,
Ramos and Gruss. Both are international and national multi- gold
competitors.

Other C.L.U.B. members are Abbey Barton, Ian Anderson, Ryan Masser,
Katie Jones, Jeremiah Martin, Jonathan Martin and Sarah Dommel.

For more information about the unicycle tour, call Marti Beiler at
656-9264. Rain date is Oct. 26.

PHOTOS; Caption: Carole Deck; (1)Members of The County of Lancaster
Unicycle Balancers practice for an upcoming tour and performance.
(2)Conestoga Valley Middle School students Zach Wilson, left, and
Melissa Gates practice some moves on their unicycles. They are members
of The County of Lancaster Unicycle Balancers.

==============================================

Raphael Lasar
Matawan, NJ


--
JJuggle - Last of the Dogmato-Revisionists

I believe in the Power of Good
I Believe in the State of Love
I Will Fight For the Right to be Right
I Will Kill for the Good of the Fight for the Right to be Right

------------------------------------------------------------------------
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View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/22148

ACTOR'S SECRET PASSION

CLARE MASTERS
MATP
203 words
19 October 2003
Sunday Telegraph
1 - State
20
English
(c) 2003 Nationwide News Proprietary Ltd

TEN months ago, embarking on a unicycle odyssey between Sydney and
Melbourne was just a drunken New Year's Eve resolution for rising young
star Samuel Johnson.

Now that the notion has become a reality, he's getting nervous about the
prospect.

"I'd had the idea earlier, but I decided somewhat hazily that I had to
do it this year," he says.

The rubber-faced actor, known for his role as Evan Wylde in television's
The Secret Life of Us, is serious about the cause he's riding for: --
cancer charity CanTeen.

"My sister had cancer when she was 12 and I was 11, and that led to a
long-lasting relationship with CanTeen," he says.

"Finding out that my sister had cancer shocked me to my very core. It
completely changed my life."

During the 1000km Seek LifeCycle for CanTeen, which he hopes will raise
more than $600,000, Johnson will ride an average of 37km a day before
crossing the finish line in Melbourne on November 25.

You can make a donation to CanTeen by visiting www.seek.com.au and
clicking on CanTeen or by phoning 1300 789 769.


--
JJuggle - Last of the Dogmato-Revisionists

Practicing democracy between wars is like being a vegetarian between
meals.

“You’re an instrument of God, bound by the limit of time and space. . .

GOOD TIMES ROLL ; YOUNG COLLINS UNICYCLERS FIND FUN, FITNESS,
SELF-RESPECT

DAVID WICKERT
The News Tribune
499 words
15 October 2003
The News Tribune
South Sound
B03
English
Copyright (c) 2003 Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company. All
rights reserved.

Blair McFarland's office at Collins Elementary School is filled with
footballs, basketballs, jump ropes and other accessories you'd expect to
find in a gym teacher's possession.

And then there are the unicycles.

About 50 of them hang from McFarland's office ceiling - except for an
hour each afternoon when students in the school's Coyote One- Wheelers
Unicycle Club practice. At those times, the ceiling empties and the gym
fills with grade-schoolers peddling the one-wheeled bikes in circles and
figure eights.

It's a spectacle that has become increasingly popular among McFarland's
students in the Summit-area school in the Franklin Pierce School
District.

"They just come out of their shell," he said. "They've found something
they can do and others can't."

Six years ago, McFarland got the idea for the club from the success
colleagues at other schools had teaching various "circus arts" like
juggling, tumbling and unicycling. McFarland decided to focus on
unicycling.

He had to encourage many of the original 20 club members to participate.
But when kids saw their friends cycling, he said, "it just snowballed."


Today, the club has 75 active riders and another 75 on a waiting list.
Participants range in age from Collins first-graders to middle-
schoolers who come back just for the cycling.

They are divided into two beginning groups, one intermediate group and
an advanced group. McFarland also coaches a performing group that
masters choreographed routines and rides at football and basketball
games and parades.

Last Wednesday, about two dozen intermediate and advanced youngsters
defied gravity at the Collins gym as McFarland put them through a series
of increasingly complex maneuvers. They zigged left and right around
cones, zagged around each other, practiced various mounts and rocked in
place. Most rode standard unicycles, though a few mounted "giraffe"
bikes that in some cases were taller than themselves.

McFarland said unicycling helps develop good balance, strength, body
control and coordination. Several club members agreed.

"It makes me work hard at something," said 12-year-old Kaelin Kerr.
"It's something to focus on."

"It's challenging," added 9-year-old Taylor Griffin.

But kids also have more kid-like reasons for enjoying unicycling.

"I think it's cool to show off to people," said 9-year-old Rachel
Sandoral. "People stare at you."

"It's fun. It's interesting," said 11-year-old Justin Osborn. "Not many
of my friends do that."


--
JJuggle - Last of the Dogmato-Revisionists

Practicing democracy between wars is like being a vegetarian between
meals.

“You’re an instrument of God, bound by the limit of time and space. . .

I know Ramos and Lowell, two of our many Davids rode this event. And
look, Nikkifrog got a quote! Way to go all.

The search at 'LancasterOnline'
(http://www.lancasteronline.com/archives.shtm) does not currently
retrieve this article, but may in the coming days. Who knows, there may
be a picture.

==============================================
UNICYCLISTS HAVE A WHEEL GOOD TIME ON LOCAL TOUR

Madelyn Pennino
524 words
20 October 2003
Lancaster New Era/Intelligencer Journal/Sunday News
English
Copyright (c) 2003 Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company. All
rights reserved.

Whizzing around the parking lot of Leola Elementary School on Sunday,
unicyclists practiced their free mounts, jump mounts and zig- zags -
skills required of any seasoned unicyclist.

About 80 unicyclists from several local school districts and their
parents participated in a three-mile tour through Maple Development, a
neighborhood within walking distance of the school.

The tour was organized through the County of Lancaster Unicycle
Balancers, or CLUB. Marti Beiler, a member of CLUB and parent of a
unicyclist, spearheaded the event. "I think people are shying away from
unicycling as a sport," Beiler said. "There are a lot of people who know
how to ride, but don't continue to develop their skills."

Not true for Beiler's son, Jason, who has captured the title of 2003
World Champion Gold Medalist in the obstacle course category. Jason, a
freshman at Conestoga Valley High School, said riding a unicycle didn't
come naturally in the beginning.

"I wasn't very good at first," Beiler said. "Not until I started feeling
myself get used to the bike." Beiler, who will continue to compete
nationally and internationally, rode a six-inch wheel unicycle on
Sunday's tour.

Short or tall, big wheels or small wheels, there were as many different
kinds of unicycles as there were unicylists.

Jenna Miller, 12, of Ephrata Middle School, started riding her unicycle
a year ago as part of a unit in her elementary school gym class. Though
she is relatively new to the sport, she said the tour didn't wear her
out. "I wasn't tired afterward," Jenna said. "It was fun."

Three bicyclists rode alongside unicyclists to supervise the tour.
Streets were open during the ride. However, East Lampeter Township
police directed traffic at intersections.

Most of the students who participated in the tour were introduced to
unicycle-riding during physical education class in elementary school. A
large portion of those students are also part of CLUB, which was formed
in January to raise interest in unicycling and for people to maintain
interest in the sport.

Paul Hosler, a physical education teacher at Leola Elementary, said the
tour will encourage students to share their skills. "It's a great
opportunity for kids who know how to unicycle to learn from each other
and be together, Hosler said.

One unicyclist is so committed to the sport she drove four hours from
Coudersport to participate.

Nikki Morley, 15, said she learned about the event at the national
unicyclist convention this past summer. "I'm the only unicyclist in my
area," Nikki said. I have to travel to be with other unicyclists. But
I'm thinking of starting a club at my school."

As for Warwick student Rachel Olena, she won't have any trouble sticking
to riding her unicycle. "This (sport) is unusual," Rachel said, "Not
many people know about riding a unicycle. That's why I like it."

After the ride, students ate hot dogs, chips and ice cream courtesy of
local businesses. Unicycle performances by several school districts
ended the day in Leola Elementary's gymnasium.
==============================================

Raphael Lasar
Matawan, NJ


--
JJuggle - Last of the Dogmato-Revisionists

if you kant beet 'em joyn 'em

"...and lately I've been satisfied by simple things,
like breathing in and breathing out."
- Natalie Merchant
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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ONE-WHEEL CYCLISTS BOUND FOR NT

By ANTHONY BARICH
260 words
1 November 2003
Sunday Territorian
1 -
80
English
(c) 2003

The Unicycling Association of the NT (UniANT) has beaten Brisbane,
Campbelltown and Castlemaine for the right to host the 2005 National
Unicycling Championships (UniNats '05).

UniNats '05 will involve track racing, mountain unicycling, hockey,
basketball, freestyle riding and urban trials -- all on one wheel.
UniANT expects more than 100 riders to attend the July 2-5 nationals.

UniANT will host UniNats '05 at various venues around the Top End after
joining with Tourism Top End and NT Athletics to make the bid.

"UniANT put forth a very professional bid promoting Darwin and the Top
End," said Wayne Van Wijk, Brisbane-based president of AUS (Australian
Unicycling Society), the sport's national body.

"The AUS looks forward to working with UniANT to put on a sporting event
unlike anything the Territory has seen before."

The winning bid was announced on Thursday at Fannie Bay at a
demonstration ride by the NT's champion unicyclists from the recent
nationals.

Continued: Page 77

NT to host titles

From Back Page

UniANT president Karen Martin-Stone said unicycling is a young sport in
the NT -- at the recent UniNats, riders ranged in age from 7-71.

"You can learn to unicycle, whatever age you are," Martin-Stone said.

"It is an excellent sport for people seeking something exciting,
challenging and unique."

Australia's female National Mountain Unicycling champion Debbie Hyder is
now introducing adult classes to Darwin.

People interested in learning to ride can visit www.UnicyclingNT.com or
phone Hyder on 8983 3898.


--
JJuggle - Last of the Dogmato-Revisionists

Never have so few done so much for so few. - Jim Hightower on the Bush
administration

"...and lately I've been satisfied by simple things,
like breathing in and breathing out."
- Natalie Merchant
"...and a new uni" - RL
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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A short one, but another school uni club.

PEDALING FOR PERFECTION

94 words
5 November 2003
St. Petersburg Times
1; 1; 3B
English
Copyright 2003 St. Petersburg Times.

(ran SS edition of METRO & STATE)

Katrina Sawaska, 9, from left, Kaitlin Castle, 10, and Lindsey Norton,
8, practice Tuesday with Oldsmar Elementary School's unicycle club in
Oldsmar. Members of the club, founded in 1995 by school principal David
Schmitt, plan to ride in the Safety Harbor and the Oldsmar Days parades
and a school talent show.


--
JJuggle - Last of the Dogmato-Revisionists

Never have so few done so much for so few. - Jim Hightower on the Bush
administration

"...and lately I've been satisfied by simple things,
like breathing in and breathing out."
- Natalie Merchant
"...and a new uni" - RL
------------------------------------------------------------------------
JJuggle's Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/24
View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/22148

A short one, but another school uni club.

PEDALING FOR PERFECTION

94 words
5 November 2003
St. Petersburg Times
1; 1; 3B
English
Copyright 2003 St. Petersburg Times.

(ran SS edition of METRO & STATE)

Katrina Sawaska, 9, from left, Kaitlin Castle, 10, and Lindsey Norton,
8, practice Tuesday with Oldsmar Elementary School's unicycle club in
Oldsmar. Members of the club, founded in 1995 by school principal David
Schmitt, plan to ride in the Safety Harbor and the Oldsmar Days parades
and a school talent show.


--
JJuggle - Last of the Dogmato-Revisionists

Never have so few done so much for so few. - Jim Hightower on the Bush
administration

"...and lately I've been satisfied by simple things,
like breathing in and breathing out."
- Natalie Merchant
"...and a new uni" - RL
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/22148

EXTREME UNICYCLIST

Alexa Moses
379 words
5 November 2003
The Sydney Morning Herald
9
English
© 2003 Copyright John Fairfax Holdings Limited. www.smh.com.au Not
available for re-distribution.

I ride therefore i am

Alex Toms's obsession doesn't need to be talked up. To get his jollies,
the 17-year-old from Campbelltown rides down rough mountain tracks,
travels on the edges of bridges or hops over gaps - on his trusty
unicycle.

"It's extreme unicycling," Toms says. "I wear a helmet when I
mountain-cycle because it's pretty crazy. We used to go without
protection and I've concussed myself, which was serious."

He took up unicycling when he was 14, as part of a circus arts course at
the Campbelltown Performing Arts High School, where he's doing his HSC.
Nowadays, he relaxes by unicycling around Campbelltown and the city with
his mates, ignoring the stares of riders on conventional two-wheelers.


"Bikers, I'm not sure what they think of us," he says. "Both sports are
really similar. Unicycling isn't as extreme as cycling but it's much
more difficult. You can't go backflipping on a unicycle, like bikes. But
a bike is just too easy now."

Toms competed recently in the national unicycle trials, where he took
the Australian records for high jump and long jump. You high-jump on a
unicycle, he explains, by bouncing on the unicycle like bunny-hopping on
a standard bike. The aim is to get over the high bar and ride away
without falling over.

Tips for would-be unicyclists?

"Unicycles have fixed pedals. Which means you can't stop pedalling and
keep moving. If you stop pedalling, you stop. Most of them don't have
brakes. So you don't want to go that fast."

Toms says he wishes he could learn to ride his unicycle again because
the learning stages were fun.

"But I got into bad habits thinking it was a bicycle. It was hard to let
go of the bike feel and learn the Unicycle Way."

Zen and the art of unicycle maintenance, maybe?

"Yes, it's very spiritual," he says.

For the 10 unicycling skill levels of the Unicycling Society of America
visit www.unicycling.org/unicycling/skills/skills.html


--
JJuggle - Last of the Dogmato-Revisionists

Never have so few done so much for so few. - Jim Hightower on the Bush
administration

"...and lately I've been satisfied by simple things,
like breathing in and breathing out."
- Natalie Merchant
"...and a new uni" - RL
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/22148

EXTREME UNICYCLIST

Alexa Moses
379 words
5 November 2003
The Sydney Morning Herald
9
English
© 2003 Copyright John Fairfax Holdings Limited. www.smh.com.au Not
available for re-distribution.

I ride therefore i am

Alex Toms's obsession doesn't need to be talked up. To get his jollies,
the 17-year-old from Campbelltown rides down rough mountain tracks,
travels on the edges of bridges or hops over gaps - on his trusty
unicycle.

"It's extreme unicycling," Toms says. "I wear a helmet when I
mountain-cycle because it's pretty crazy. We used to go without
protection and I've concussed myself, which was serious."

He took up unicycling when he was 14, as part of a circus arts course at
the Campbelltown Performing Arts High School, where he's doing his HSC.
Nowadays, he relaxes by unicycling around Campbelltown and the city with
his mates, ignoring the stares of riders on conventional two-wheelers.


"Bikers, I'm not sure what they think of us," he says. "Both sports are
really similar. Unicycling isn't as extreme as cycling but it's much
more difficult. You can't go backflipping on a unicycle, like bikes. But
a bike is just too easy now."

Toms competed recently in the national unicycle trials, where he took
the Australian records for high jump and long jump. You high-jump on a
unicycle, he explains, by bouncing on the unicycle like bunny-hopping on
a standard bike. The aim is to get over the high bar and ride away
without falling over.

Tips for would-be unicyclists?

"Unicycles have fixed pedals. Which means you can't stop pedalling and
keep moving. If you stop pedalling, you stop. Most of them don't have
brakes. So you don't want to go that fast."

Toms says he wishes he could learn to ride his unicycle again because
the learning stages were fun.

"But I got into bad habits thinking it was a bicycle. It was hard to let
go of the bike feel and learn the Unicycle Way."

Zen and the art of unicycle maintenance, maybe?

"Yes, it's very spiritual," he says.

For the 10 unicycling skill levels of the Unicycling Society of America
visit www.unicycling.org/unicycling/skills/skills.html


--
JJuggle - Last of the Dogmato-Revisionists

Never have so few done so much for so few. - Jim Hightower on the Bush
administration

"...and lately I've been satisfied by simple things,
like breathing in and breathing out."
- Natalie Merchant
"...and a new uni" - RL
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/22148

So many jerks, so little time.

LITTLE MOMENTS IN GOTHAM

Reviewed by John McMurtrie
Chronicle Staff Writer
542 words
2 November 2003
The San Francisco Chronicle
FINAL
M.2
English
Copyright (c) 2003 Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company. All
rights reserved.

The Colossus of New York

A City in Thirteen Parts

By Colson Whitehead

DOUBLEDAY; 158 PAGES; $19.95

-------------------------------

For a brisk, freeform book that weighs in at a mere 158 pages, the
grandiose title "The Colossus of New York" is only slightly less lofty
than the Big Apple's top-of-the-world ego.

In trying to capture the majesty and complexity of his native city,
novelist Colson Whitehead has written 13 nonfiction chapters that read
as a stream-of-consciousness riff, an impressionistic take on a place
whose mutability, as he points out, makes it hard to pin down.

At its best, "Colossus" illuminates innumerable little moments that
define the city. "A man hands out leaflets," Whitehead writes in a
chapter on Times Square, "and they shun him as if he held a sheaf of
virus and not merely advertisements for discount prosthetics."

At its worst, the book strays toward overly grand and groovy
pronouncements. "Hit the town. It hits back," Whitehead muses in a
chapter on nightlife downtown. (The world-weary voice, one of several he
adopts, is especially precious for a writer who is 33 years old.) Times
Square, meanwhile, inspires this unironic insight (cue the smooth jazz):
"Oh, the lights. At night you need shades."

Being a New Yorker, Whitehead, author of "The Intuitionist" and "John
Henry Days," brings a New York attitude to his enterprise. It's only
appropriate, of course, but one senses that he's striving extra hard to
play the part of the urban misanthrope who loves his city but not its
inhabitants. He dishes out unimaginative put-downs for "the jerk at the
intersection," *"some jerk on a unicycle,"* "fools" who wade in
fountains and "him again, that rheumy bitch" on the subway.

Thankfully, "Colossus" has flashes of keenly observed and mordant humor.
Writing in the second person, he paints a vivid picture of the gloomy,
neurotic underworld of the subway: "Look down the tunnel one more time
and your behavior will describe a psychiatric disorder. It's
infectious." Of the advertisements staring out at riders, he observes:
"Along the fungi hall of fame we are introduced to ailments. Has anybody
ever in history copied down the phone number of the dermatologist with
the sinister name."

Though what he's written is, at heart, a love letter to New York,
Whitehead, oddly, makes no reference to the devastation brought about by
the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. But he does reflect on the impermanence
of place: "One day the city we built will be gone, and when it goes, we
go. When the buildings fall, we topple, too."

What best emerges from Whitehead's book is a sense of New York as a
living, breathing entity, a benign force that always looks after its
own:

"You say you know these streets pretty well? The city knows you better
than any living person because it has seen you when you are alone. It
saw you steeling yourself for the job interview, slowly walking home
after the late date, tripping over nonexistent impediments on the
sidewalk. . . . The city saw all that. Remembers, too."

E-mail John McMurtrie at .

Document SFC0000020031102dzb20000u


--
JJuggle - Last of the Dogmato-Revisionists

Never have so few done so much for so few. - Jim Hightower on the Bush
administration

"...and lately I've been satisfied by simple things,
like breathing in and breathing out."
- Natalie Merchant
"...and a new uni" - RL
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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So many jerks, so little time.

LITTLE MOMENTS IN GOTHAM

Reviewed by John McMurtrie
Chronicle Staff Writer
542 words
2 November 2003
The San Francisco Chronicle
FINAL
M.2
English
Copyright (c) 2003 Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company. All
rights reserved.

The Colossus of New York

A City in Thirteen Parts

By Colson Whitehead

DOUBLEDAY; 158 PAGES; $19.95

-------------------------------

For a brisk, freeform book that weighs in at a mere 158 pages, the
grandiose title "The Colossus of New York" is only slightly less lofty
than the Big Apple's top-of-the-world ego.

In trying to capture the majesty and complexity of his native city,
novelist Colson Whitehead has written 13 nonfiction chapters that read
as a stream-of-consciousness riff, an impressionistic take on a place
whose mutability, as he points out, makes it hard to pin down.

At its best, "Colossus" illuminates innumerable little moments that
define the city. "A man hands out leaflets," Whitehead writes in a
chapter on Times Square, "and they shun him as if he held a sheaf of
virus and not merely advertisements for discount prosthetics."

At its worst, the book strays toward overly grand and groovy
pronouncements. "Hit the town. It hits back," Whitehead muses in a
chapter on nightlife downtown. (The world-weary voice, one of several he
adopts, is especially precious for a writer who is 33 years old.) Times
Square, meanwhile, inspires this unironic insight (cue the smooth jazz):
"Oh, the lights. At night you need shades."

Being a New Yorker, Whitehead, author of "The Intuitionist" and "John
Henry Days," brings a New York attitude to his enterprise. It's only
appropriate, of course, but one senses that he's striving extra hard to
play the part of the urban misanthrope who loves his city but not its
inhabitants. He dishes out unimaginative put-downs for "the jerk at the
intersection," *"some jerk on a unicycle,"* "fools" who wade in
fountains and "him again, that rheumy bitch" on the subway.

Thankfully, "Colossus" has flashes of keenly observed and mordant humor.
Writing in the second person, he paints a vivid picture of the gloomy,
neurotic underworld of the subway: "Look down the tunnel one more time
and your behavior will describe a psychiatric disorder. It's
infectious." Of the advertisements staring out at riders, he observes:
"Along the fungi hall of fame we are introduced to ailments. Has anybody
ever in history copied down the phone number of the dermatologist with
the sinister name."

Though what he's written is, at heart, a love letter to New York,
Whitehead, oddly, makes no reference to the devastation brought about by
the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. But he does reflect on the impermanence
of place: "One day the city we built will be gone, and when it goes, we
go. When the buildings fall, we topple, too."

What best emerges from Whitehead's book is a sense of New York as a
living, breathing entity, a benign force that always looks after its
own:

"You say you know these streets pretty well? The city knows you better
than any living person because it has seen you when you are alone. It
saw you steeling yourself for the job interview, slowly walking home
after the late date, tripping over nonexistent impediments on the
sidewalk. . . . The city saw all that. Remembers, too."

E-mail John McMurtrie at .

Document SFC0000020031102dzb20000u


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JJuggle - Last of the Dogmato-Revisionists

Never have so few done so much for so few. - Jim Hightower on the Bush
administration

"...and lately I've been satisfied by simple things,
like breathing in and breathing out."
- Natalie Merchant
"...and a new uni" - RL
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On Mon, 10 Nov 2003 14:06:55 -0600, JJuggle
> wrote:

>So many jerks, so little time.

Gosh, that was hidden!

Klaas Bil - Newsgroup Addict
--
Grizzly bear droppings have bells in them and smell like pepper spray. - UniBrier

On Mon, 10 Nov 2003 14:06:55 -0600, JJuggle
> wrote:

>So many jerks, so little time.

Gosh, that was hidden!

Klaas Bil - Newsgroup Addict
--
Grizzly bear droppings have bells in them and smell like pepper spray. - UniBrier

'Powdersville students find niche as unicyclists (with picture)'
(http://tinyurl.com/ukvc)


--
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'Powdersville students find niche as unicyclists (with picture)'
(http://tinyurl.com/ukvc)


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'Hey Joe, Try This (picture of newbie trying to ride)'
(http://tinyurl.com/ukwa)


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'Hey Joe, Try This (picture of newbie trying to ride)'
(http://tinyurl.com/ukwa)


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Klaas Bil wrote:
> *On Mon, 10 Nov 2003 14:06:55 -0600, JJuggle
> > wrote:
>
> >So many jerks, so little time.
>
> Gosh, that was hidden!
> *
Yes, and in plain view. :)

Raphael Lasar
Matawan, NJ


--
JJuggle - Last of the Dogmato-Revisionists

Never have so few done so much for so few. - Jim Hightower on the Bush
administration

"...and lately I've been satisfied by simple things,
like breathing in and breathing out."
- Natalie Merchant
"...and a new uni" - RL
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Klaas Bil wrote:
> *On Mon, 10 Nov 2003 14:06:55 -0600, JJuggle
> > wrote:
>
> >So many jerks, so little time.
>
> Gosh, that was hidden!
> *
Yes, and in plain view. :)

Raphael Lasar
Matawan, NJ


--
JJuggle - Last of the Dogmato-Revisionists

Never have so few done so much for so few. - Jim Hightower on the Bush
administration

"...and lately I've been satisfied by simple things,
like breathing in and breathing out."
- Natalie Merchant
"...and a new uni" - RL
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/22148

unibabyguy wrote:
> *'Powdersville students find niche as unicyclists (with picture)'
> (http://tinyurl.com/ukvc) *
Nice one. Thanks for that and the "Hey Joe" photo.

Raphael Lasar
Matawan, NJ


--
JJuggle - Last of the Dogmato-Revisionists

Never have so few done so much for so few. - Jim Hightower on the Bush
administration

"...and lately I've been satisfied by simple things,
like breathing in and breathing out."
- Natalie Merchant
"...and a new uni" - RL
------------------------------------------------------------------------
JJuggle's Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/24
View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/22148

unibabyguy wrote:
> *'Powdersville students find niche as unicyclists (with picture)'
> (http://tinyurl.com/ukvc) *
Nice one. Thanks for that and the "Hey Joe" photo.

Raphael Lasar
Matawan, NJ


--
JJuggle - Last of the Dogmato-Revisionists

Never have so few done so much for so few. - Jim Hightower on the Bush
administration

"...and lately I've been satisfied by simple things,
like breathing in and breathing out."
- Natalie Merchant
"...and a new uni" - RL
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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I myself am at this moment awaiting a UPS delivery from Unicycle.com.
:)

Raphael Lasar
Matawan, NJ

==============================================
*UPS and The UPS Store Stand Ready for Holiday Shipping.*

1,245 words
19 November 2003
Pressi.com
English
(c) Copyright 2003 by www.pressi.com

More Than 300 Million Packages Expected During Peak Season ATLANTA, Nov.
18, 2003 - For the second straight year, the calendar has thrown UPS
(NYSE: UPS) and a bevy of holiday shoppers and shippers a short holiday
season. But with more players on the team, including more than 3,100
newly branded The UPS Store retail locations, UPS is ready to deliver
more than 300 million packages during the holidays. Thanksgiving falls
on Nov. 27 this year, leaving just 18 delivery days during that peak"
period between Thanksgiving and Christmas. While that's one day more
than 2002, it still means holiday shippers can't delay too long with
their packages. And it also means UPS is taking steps to highlight
various options that make the shipping process faster, easier and more
efficient. Most customers who used to drive across town to pack and ship
their gifts can find UPS right around the corner at The UPS Store in
their neighborhood," said Rocky Romanella, vice president, UPS Retail
Services.

The 3,100 U.S. locations of The UPS Store not only provide customers
holiday convenience, but also lower UPS shipping prices." UPS is no
stranger to the retail sector. UPS synchronizes the movement of goods to
store shelves and homes for major retailers, catalogers and e-tailers
such as Best Buy, Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn, Lands' End and
Amazon.com. Additionally, small businesses like *'Unicycle.com'
(http://www.unicycle.com)*, which nets 40 percent of its annual sales
during November and December, count on UPS to conquer the holiday crunch
just as large retailers do. UPS has been critical to our success since I
first began selling unicycles from my basement three years ago," said
John Drummond, the founder of Unicyle.com. UPS's technology is as vital
to helping us fulfill the surge of orders as the drivers are to
delivering them. In fact, it has enabled us to recently start another
online business called *'Banjo.com' (http://www.banjo.com)*."...


--
JJuggle - Last of the Dogmato-Revisionists

...and when she passes she smiles, but she doesn't see.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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I am, too.

"psycholist"

"JJuggle" > wrote in
message clist.com...
>
> I myself am at this moment awaiting a UPS delivery from Unicycle.com.
> :)
>
> Raphael Lasar
> Matawan, NJ
>
> ==============================================
> *UPS and The UPS Store Stand Ready for Holiday Shipping.*
>
> 1,245 words
> 19 November 2003
> Pressi.com
> English
> (c) Copyright 2003 by www.pressi.com
>
> More Than 300 Million Packages Expected During Peak Season ATLANTA, Nov.
> 18, 2003 - For the second straight year, the calendar has thrown UPS
> (NYSE: UPS) and a bevy of holiday shoppers and shippers a short holiday
> season. But with more players on the team, including more than 3,100
> newly branded The UPS Store retail locations, UPS is ready to deliver
> more than 300 million packages during the holidays. Thanksgiving falls
> on Nov. 27 this year, leaving just 18 delivery days during that peak"
> period between Thanksgiving and Christmas. While that's one day more
> than 2002, it still means holiday shippers can't delay too long with
> their packages. And it also means UPS is taking steps to highlight
> various options that make the shipping process faster, easier and more
> efficient. Most customers who used to drive across town to pack and ship
> their gifts can find UPS right around the corner at The UPS Store in
> their neighborhood," said Rocky Romanella, vice president, UPS Retail
> Services.
>
> The 3,100 U.S. locations of The UPS Store not only provide customers
> holiday convenience, but also lower UPS shipping prices." UPS is no
> stranger to the retail sector. UPS synchronizes the movement of goods to
> store shelves and homes for major retailers, catalogers and e-tailers
> such as Best Buy, Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn, Lands' End and
> Amazon.com. Additionally, small businesses like *'Unicycle.com'
> (http://www.unicycle.com)*, which nets 40 percent of its annual sales
> during November and December, count on UPS to conquer the holiday crunch
> just as large retailers do. UPS has been critical to our success since I
> first began selling unicycles from my basement three years ago," said
> John Drummond, the founder of Unicyle.com. UPS's technology is as vital
> to helping us fulfill the surge of orders as the drivers are to
> delivering them. In fact, it has enabled us to recently start another
> online business called *'Banjo.com' (http://www.banjo.com)*."...
>
>
> --
> JJuggle - Last of the Dogmato-Revisionists
>
> ..and when she passes she smiles, but she doesn't see.
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> JJuggle's Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/24
> View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/22148
>

On Tue, 11 Nov 2003 13:30:13 -0600, JJuggle
> wrote:

>Klaas Bil wrote:
>> *On Mon, 10 Nov 2003 14:06:55 -0600, JJuggle
>> > wrote:
>>
>> >So many jerks, so little time.
>>
>> Gosh, that was hidden!
>> *
>Yes, and in plain view. :)
>
>Raphael Lasar
>Matawan, NJ

I'm not sure you understood my comment, nor am I sure I understood
yours. I meant to say that the string 'unicycl' was hidden somewhere
in that long text.

I usually read via the newgroup as you will know. But just yesterday I
saw your latest contribution in this thread on the forum, and I
noticed the search word appears in bold font. I never knew about that
formatting on the forum, but it certainly detracts from the
hiddenness.

So now I would say, paraphrasing both of our comments: "Gosh, that was
hidden in plain ASCII view!"

Klaas Bil - Newsgroup Addict
--
"My butt has a crack in it , but I can still ride. - spyder"

TRICKY RIDE FOR CHILDREN IN NEED

the staff of the North Yorkshire Advertiser
209 words
2 December 2003
Newsquest Media Group Newspapers
English
© Copyright 2003 Newsquest Digital Media.

The North East

Unicyclists Jason Ayre, left, 12, and Alex McAulay, 13, of Richmond

TWO school friends have put their circus skills to good use by going on
a sponsored unicycle ride.

Alex McAulay, 13, of Skeeby, near Richmond, and Jason Ayre, 12, of
Richmond raised £170 for Children in Need when they unicycled 4.4 miles
from the town's Holly Hill Inn to the village of Downholme on Saturday,
November 22.

They learnt to unicycle at Richmond School's circus club and can also
juggle and play unicycle hockey.

Alex said: "It was hard work and quite tiring but it was worth it. We
will probably do it again next year, but go there and back instead of
just one way.

"The circus club is really good fun and we played unicycle hockey
against the British champions last month. We even beat them in a couple
of games."

The pair aimed to raise even more money for Children in Need by
organising a stall at Richmond School Fair last Thursday night and
making their school friends guess how long the sponsored ride took them
to complete.


--
JJuggle - Last of the Dogmato-Revisionists

I have to be careful not to preach
I can't pretend that I can teach,
And yet I've lived your future out
By pounding stages like a clown.

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WHERE THERE'S A WHEEL...

By JOHN MYERS.
657 words
24 November 2003
Evening Standard
9
English
(c) 2003 The Evening Standard, INL

IT'S arguable that freestyle BMX came out of the circus ring and on to
the streets and tracks. Can the unicycle do the same thing?

Can it be the next weird thing after the skateboard, rollerblades and
(just landing) Heelys? Will they be just as popular with the ACC?

Steve Pavarno of Palmerston North, and a couple of fellow exponents from
Auckland, are planning to make it work. They're on the way to setting up
their business - unicycle.co.nz, the Kiwi end of United States-based
unicycle.com - and Steve has been through a 14-part Biz training course
with small business adviser Sandra Anderson.

The incentive?

"It's free, government-funded business training - and I needed it."

And he says he got a lot of valuable knowledge out of it, both from the
courses and from rubbing off with people setting out on their own
business ventures.

"It's a really impressive set-up - we usually had 20 or 25 at the
sessions, and soon there were a lot of familiar faces and good
cameraderie."

Steve - it's a little hard to think of a guy who uses a unicycle like
most people use shoes as "Mr Pavarno", even if Wellington has no
problems with high-profile unicycling house surgeon Dr Ken Looi - has a
Massey degree in computer science. He also has a business background in
his own website development operation. That experience has gone into
building unicycle.co.nz as an internet-based retail, information and
promotional business, with its trading base in Palmerston North.

The administration structure and company governance, with fellow
directors Peter Bier and Tony Melton in Auckland, is also web based.

Steve is "general manager" primarily because his fellow directors and
unicyclists have too much on their individual plates. Mr Bier is a
biotechnologist working on a project to teach a computer to replicate
the human larynx (voice box). Mr Melton is an honours graduate in
chemistry.

All three are nuts about unicycles, and took the step of forming the
company because of the costs and time delays they and like-minded
one-wheelers faced to get quality gear in from the United States.

"I suppose there's always the chance we'll wind up being our own best
customers," he says.

But so far, with a half-tonne of unicycles having arrived this month,
it's looking good.

Steve can often be seen unicycling around the city, or doing longer
trips around the region in preparation for a coming Taupo distance
event.

"I did Bunnythorpe and back last weekend. Traffic doesn't know what to
do with a unicycle."

Unicycles, says Steve, are not just playground toys - though that's as a
good a place as any to start. The various "styles" extend from commuter
to freestyle (stunts), trail riding, trials (obstacles) and extreme
mountain (muni) unicycle.

While there have been small groups around the country, on and off, he
believes the unicycle has suffered from lack of a national body - and
that's something the trio are working to correct. The proposed NZ
Unicycle Federation is advancing as a web-based project advancing at
unicycle.org.nz.

He's working with schools, presenting the unicycle as an achievable,
impressive skill and a co-ordination developer.

"It's a great self-esteem booster - `Wow! I can do it!' - for students
who might not be great academic achievers, and its a strength-and
fitness-builder.

"A lot of people who can handle a BMX can be riding a unicycle, the
basics, in about 20 minutes," Steve says.

He's just landed a 10-unicycle order from a school. But he's expecting
the main business will come from the growing extreme sport unicycle
community.

A regular fun and promotional event is Saturday morning beginner lessons
and unicycle hockey at the Memorial Park skating rink, picking up a
growing following.


--
JJuggle - Last of the Dogmato-Revisionists

I have to be careful not to preach
I can't pretend that I can teach,
And yet I've lived your future out
By pounding stages like a clown.

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JJuggle wrote:
> *
> The naked truth: Strickland once joked that as the lawyer for the
> student body at the University of Virginia, she probably represented
> more streakers than any other attorney in the United States. She
> suspects she can still claim that. She remembers one client who was
> caught after riding a unicycle* - naked.


Yet another reason why you shouldn't buy a used unicycle on Ebay - you
don't know where it's been.


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On Tue, 2 Dec 2003 07:12:07 -0600, JJuggle
> wrote:

>"A lot of people who can handle a BMX can be riding a unicycle, the
>basics, in about 20 minutes," Steve says.

Sales talk, that.
I guess many learners are in for a deception.

Klaas Bil - Newsgroup Addict
--
"Friends don't let friends drop to flat - Kris Holm, discussing large drops to flat ground."

IT'S ONE WHEEL FOR MATT.

164 words
4 December 2003
North Devon Journal
49
English
(c) 2003 North Devon Journal

Is one wheel better than two? Matt Lemon, 29, from Braunton thinks so.
Instead of a bike he pedals to work on a unicycle.

He admits to falling off "only occasionally". Adding: "You have to start
from scratch, its just like riding a bike. Practice makes perfect."
After parking his car on the outskirts of Barnstaple, it only takes him
about four minutes to get to work at Our Price. Otherwise it would take
him 10 minutes to walk.

Matt loves the attention and even rides the unicycle to pick up his
Indian takeaway in Braunton.

Stilt-walking and fire-juggling are also part of his repertoire. His
juggling has taken him to exotic locations like Ibiza and Malta and he
is a regular juggler at Glastonbury music festival.

Matt said: "I have actually played unicycle hockey before which was
great, so if there's anyone out there that's interested I'd love to know
about them."


--
JJuggle - Last of the Dogmato-Revisionists

I have to be careful not to preach
I can't pretend that I can teach,
And yet I've lived your future out
By pounding stages like a clown.

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Article on elementary school unicycle club in Central Ohio:

'Stunt kids keep rolling along' (http://tinyurl.com/yrxm)


--
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On Thu, 11 Dec 2003 10:17:09 -0600, unibabyguy
m> wrote:

>Article on elementary school unicycle club in Central Ohio:
>>'Stunt kids keep rolling along' (http://tinyurl.com/yrxm)

Maybe this is a good opportunity to point out that I like it that
JJuggle quotes the full text in his posts. For one thing, the texts
are 'safe' even though the original source may delete it, put it
behind a password, change the url, whatever. In addition, as an
offline (newsgroup) reader I would otherwise have to reconnect to the
net, for which I am frequently too lazy (and it costs more money).

Klaas Bil - Newsgroup Addict
--
"Friends don't let friends drop to flat - Kris Holm, discussing large drops to flat ground."

Good point, but the original article is copyrighted.


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unibabyguy wrote:
> *Good point, but the original article is copyrighted. *

Not more so, I think, than many of the articles JJuggle quotes in full.
And as a librarian he'll know what he does (in that respect, I should
add respectfully).

Klaas Bil


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UNICYCLE SHOP TO GO

536 words
13 December 2003
Newsquest Media Group Newspapers
English
© Copyright 2003 Newsquest Digital Media.

Bolton

A SPECIALIST shop selling unicycles and other unique gifts is the latest
in a long line of retailers to move out of an isolated town centre
shopping complex.

Traders in the award-winning St Andrew's Court centre say that because
of a lack of promotion of the arcade they are struggling to compete with
out of town shopping centres.

Over the last few years, the court has seen several businesses close
down and relocate, leaving numerous empty shop units.

Card and gift shop Zebra, which sells unicycles, will be closing at
Christmas after 18 years in business.

Owner Gillian Terrell says that a combination of strict changes in
parking rules, out of town shopping centres and pedestrianisation of
surrounding streets have all contributed to her decision not to renew
the lease on the unit.

She said: "The area is no longer a busy thoroughfare into the town
centre, which used to attract a lot of passing trade.

"And there has been the construction of many retail parks around the
outskirts which is leaving Bolton like a doughnut -- with everything
around the outside and nothing in the middle.

"It's very sad because it could be a very busy shopping area."

St Andrew's Court, which houses 21 shop units, was built in the late
1970s and was billed as Bolton's showpiece shopping centre.

Mrs Terrell also said that large chain stores opening in the town centre
are slowly driving out traditional independent businesses.

Sue Calland, who owns and runs Mea Fashion in the court, said she relied
heavily on regular custom built up over the years.

Although happy with her place in the complex and the business it brings,
Mrs Calland said the area as a whole could do with more promotion to
attract new custom and businesses.

Bolton Council is currently using some of the empty shop units to
display work by professional local based artists.

Business owners in the complex hope this will attract more shoppers to
the court.

Andrew Dickson, owner of the successful St Andrew's Travel which is also
based in the arcade, said: "Some of the businesses in St Andrew's Court
have been affected by the general reduction in visitors to the town
centre.

"This has been created by the reduction in parking and lack of
investment in the infrastructure in the town centre. It becomes a
downward spiral when you get shops closing.

"The council needs to make stronger use of the law regarding issues like
fly-posting, litter louts and begging."

Mr Dickson is calling on landlords to invest in their properties,
improve lighting and lower rents so that businesses will be encouraged
to come into the town centre.

A spokesman for St Andrew's Court management said: "We are aware of some
problems which need addressing and moves are afoot to put our efforts
into these matters.

"Lighting and signange of the court are obvious issues, and capital
investment is certainly needed.

"We have appointed a permanent manager to the site for the first time in
a number of years, and he will focus efforts on making changes and
getting things moving again in St Andrew's Court."


--
JJuggle - Last of the Dogmato-Revisionists

I have to be careful not to preach
I can't pretend that I can teach,
And yet I've lived your future out
By pounding stages like a clown.

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UNICYCLISTS TAKE TO MOUNTAIN BIKE TRAILS

By DEB ACORD
The Gazette
820 words
12 January 2004
16:17
Associated Press Newswires
English
(c) 2004. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) - Extreme mountain biking, extreme
snowmobiling. Extreme skateboarding and in-line skating. Motocross and
skiercross and all the other 'crosses.

They're so yesterday.

At least for Aaron Dubois, a local teenager who has all those old, tired
extreme sports beat. Dubois has embraced a sport that's so cutting-edge,
so new, so X, he appears to be only one of a handful in the state to
master it.

Dubois is a municyclist, a relatively new word for the relatively new
sport of mountain unicycling.

Several times a week Dubois pedals a shiny but scarred unicycle up and
down rugged trails favored by downhill mountain bikers. On a recent
sunny morning, Dubois took to a rough, rock-strewn hillside dotted with
spiky yucca and withered cacti.

Municycles, like the one Dubois rides, have knobby tires, big saddles
and mountain bike pedals. Like all unicycles, they have no gears and no
way to coast. The rider pedals constantly. One rotation forward takes
him forward the length of one rotation of the wheel. If he stops
pedaling, the municycle stops.

So municycle riders are always pedaling, uphill and downhill. With one
hand gripping the horn of the oversized seat and the other arm
outstretched for balance, a municyclist moves in jumps and starts,
continually adjusting for balance.

Speed isn't the issue. At unicycle races, according to the Unicycling
Society of America, 17 mph is a common speed for the 100-meter winner;
14 mph for the 1,600 meter and 11 mph for a 10K. Dubois figures he rides
about 2 mph on trails.

That doesn't mean you can't get anywhere on a municycle. Just ask Ed
Hansen of Florence. Hansen, 30, is a corrections officer who has ridden
a municycle since February.

He used to explore trails on a mountain bike. Now, he rides a municycle
with his mountain biking friends.

"If it's really smooth and straight and they can use their gears, they
leave me in the dust," he says. "But if it's rough, technical stuff and
we're going downhill, we go the same speed. If we're going uphill, I can
even pass them sometimes."

Like Hansen, Dubois has learned the power of a municycle -- but it took
a while. Dubois is 14 and home-schooled. A fan of science fiction, a
"true believer" in aliens and an avid model builder, he has tried
skateboarding and extreme inline skating and snowboarding, and is
proficient at downhill mountain biking.

On a whim last Christmas he asked for a unicycle. When he got it, he
spent a few weeks in his driveway trying to learn to ride it. "There was
about a week when I gave it up. It was hard to learn," he says.

But he couldn't resist the shiny one-wheeled bike, so he worked on it
until he could ride it.

Dubois left the driveway for a dirt hill near his house, and soon
graduated to trails in his Cheyenne Mountain neighborhood.

He discovered that balance was crucial, and that unicycling, especially
the mountain variety, can take its toll on his legs.

"But in some ways, it's easier than riding a bike. There's only one
wheel to worry about, and it's always a thrill."

Now, Dubois seeks out the perfect day on his municycle: a sunny, warm,
T-shirts and shorts kind of day. His only regret? "That I don't have
somebody to do it with me."

The hardest part of perfecting the municycle, Dubois says, has been
coping with the reaction of his peers. Kids called him "circus freak"
when they saw him riding on one wheel.

That's a common reaction to the unicycle, which, for generations, has
been associated with the circus ring.

But that may be changing. Municycle events and clubs dot California and
elsewhere. Web sites such as the one run by a municycle pioneer John
Foss, unicycling.com, detail events and provide news about the exploding
sport. The North American Unicycling Championships last summer in
Minneapolis attracted 350 unicyclists.

Unicycles have even taken on Moab, Utah, considered the mecca of
mountain biking. Ed Hansen met other muni-minded athletes at last year's
Moab MUni Fest, an event held each summer since 2001 on the slickrock
near town. At MUni Fest, Hansen says, the versatility of the municycle
becomes obvious. "It's a blast on the slickrock. It's amazing how steep
a hill you can go down or up without slipping."

Hansen believes municycling has a place in the future of outdoor
recreation. "I feel like it's where mountain biking was 20 years ago.
Not many people are doing it, but it's catching on."

------

On the Net:

Foss homepage: http://www.unicycling.com/

Unicycling Society of America: http://www.unicycling.org/usa


--
JJuggle - Last of the Dogmato-Revisionists

My favorite thing to buy is underwear. I think buying underwear is the
most personal thing you can do, and if you could watch a person buying
underwear you would really get to know them...I think the strangest
people are the ones who send someone else to buy their underwear for
them. I also wonder about people who don't buy underwear. I can
understand not wearing it, but not buying it? - Andy Warhol

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FALLING FOR; ON THE CORNELIUS ELEMENTARY UNICYCLE TEAM, AS IN LIFE, YOU
CAN'T HUG THE WALL FOREVER

PAM KELLEY
Staff Writer
513 words
11 January 2004
Charlotte Observer (NC)
1st
1G
English
Copyright 2004 The Charlotte Observer. All rights reserved.

Before you ride a unicycle, you have to talk about falling.

Because you will. Over and over.

First thing in the school year, that's what Cornelius Elementary PE
teacher Don Riehl discusses with all fifth-graders who want to be part
of the Cycling Cougars, the school's unicycle team.

When you feel you're falling, he tells them, take a step off and grab
the seat. If you catch it, the seat lasts longer.

Everyone approaches falls differently. Nicole Bodziony tries to minimize
them. She holds a friend's hand and pedals, afraid to let go. It's not
the fall that worries her, she says. It's the possibility that a
careening boy will plow into her when she's down.

As she talked during a recent practice, pedaling classmates swirled
around her. As if on cue, Ridge Morgan tumbled off his unicycle, skidded
across the gym floor and came to rest near Nicole's feet.

For Ridge, the dramatic fall adds to the overall unicycling experience.
"In here, if you fall, you sort of slide with the floor and it doesn't
really hurt. If I'm outside, I fall more carefully."

Cornelius' unicycle team, one of the few in the region, has been around
about 12 years. Once a week, about 60 unicycle club members arrive at
school early to practice. Eventually, they become proficient enough to
perform at school and community events. But in September, most hugged
gym walls for balance and made cautious forays across the floor.

By December, some wall huggers remained. But every week, more kids
zipped around with confidence, executing split-second turns to avoid
crashing into each other.

With gym traffic beginning to resemble rush hour in Rome, Riehl made an
announcement: "A few people need to start falling more gracefully and
with a little more control." He looked at Ridge.

How do you avoid falling? "Mr. Riehl says you've got to pedal, pedal,
pedal, pedal," Madison Barker says.

Sometimes, Katie Heidrich says, you start pedaling, and you realize
you're riding, "and you're just so proud of yourself you forget to
pedal."

And then you fall.

Keep trying, though, and one day you realize you're pedaling more than
falling.

Ben Pierce is there. Ben glides around the gym, arms swinging, shoulders
relaxed. "It feels like flying," he says. One real plus about unicycles,
he says, is that they don't have handlebars, "so you can just bring in
groceries for your mom."

When practice ended, Riehl gathered his unicyclers and told them to
practice at home over holiday break. In January, he told them,
accomplished riders could try a six-foot-tall unicycle known as "the
giraffe."

"Yay!" Ridge said.

But Jackson Ulmer had a question. "What happens when you fall on a
giraffe?"

Before you ride a giraffe, you have to talk about falling.


--
JJuggle - Last of the Dogmato-Revisionists

My favorite thing to buy is underwear. I think buying underwear is the
most personal thing you can do, and if you could watch a person buying
underwear you would really get to know them...I think the strangest
people are the ones who send someone else to buy their underwear for
them. I also wonder about people who don't buy underwear. I can
understand not wearing it, but not buying it? - Andy Warhol

------------------------------------------------------------------------
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LUCKY INKS IN TATTOO RECORD

PAUL STEWART
361 words
18 January 2004
Sunday Herald Sun
1 - FIRST
32
English
(c) 2004 Herald and Weekly Times Limited

MEET Lucky Rich -- the world's most tattooed man.

In what is another international first for Melbourne, Rich, 32, has
entered the Guinness Book Of Records after having the inside of his ears
and the skin between his toes tattooed.

The ink-work was enough to take the world title from Scotsman Tom
Leopard.

"I am now fully covered everywhere and, yes, I mean everywhere," Rich
said.

"If you look up the Guinness Book Of Records extreme people category you
will find me now listed as the world's most tattooed man."

Rich, whose trips into the city literally stop traffic, has topped off
his distinctive look by having silver crowns on his teeth.

His skin is now a shade of blue meets purple from the many layers of
tattooing he has had over the years.

"I got my first tattoo when I was 16 in Kings Cross and lost my
virginity the same night," Rich said with a grin.

"I have since had more than 850 hours of tattoo work performed on my
body. I must have worked with more than 200 tattoo artists to achieve
the look I am after. Some people say `how can you do it?', but I simply
love being tattooed."

Asked if such extensive work had been painful, he said: "Opening my
wallet to pay for it all was the hardest bit."

Rich also lists his skills as a "master escapologist, *"awesome
unicyclist"*, "chainsaw juggler" and

a "self-taught sword swallower". He has also been hired to perform at
private parties attended by the likes of Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman.


"I am a living, walking advertisement for never judging a book by its
cover," Rich said.

"People might think I am nasty because of my look, but I am actually a
nice guy."

So what does Rich's mother think of it all?

"My mum did not like my tattoos at first and I used to hide them from
her," he said.

"Gradually she accepted them and she just got her first tattoo done at
age 50 and she is already talking about getting another one."


--
JJuggle - Last of the Dogmato-Revisionists

Nobody feels like working,
Panama Red is back in town.
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*The big wheel ; It's a highly effective workout for both mind and body,
once you master its mysteries. But those who ride unicycles do it as
much for fun as fitness.*

Chris Bynum Health and fitness writer
1,619 words
5 February 2004
Times-Picayune
01
English
Copyright (c) 2004 Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company. All
rights reserved.

The fitness industry has an array of high-tech machinery and an
ever-changing menu of workout motifs to keep its customers motivated.
But there's something to be said for the less-is-more approach to
exercise. So say those who burn their calories on less than half of a
bicycle.

"I had gained a pound a year since high school," says John Drummond, 46,
who rode unicycles as a child, resumed his pastime at age 40 and
promptly dropped the 20-plus pounds he had gained over the years.

Drummond became such a believer in the single-wheel cycle that he left
his job at IBM and started selling unicycles over the Internet from his
home base in Georgia five years ago. Friends and relatives thought he'd
lost his marbles -- his father-in-law asked, "How many clowns do you
know?" -- but his e-commerce gamble turned into a million-dollar
international business. He now sells about 4,000 unicycles, plus parts,
every year.

But customers, ranging in age from 10 to 92, aren't buying them for
weight loss; they're buying them for fun.

Every Sunday afternoon local unicyclists -- many of whom are customers
of Drummond's -- gather at the Norman Playground on the West Bank for an
afternoon of unicycle polo, a game the locals invented themselves. Their
version of polo follows sanctioned games of unicycle basketball and
unicycle hockey.

So what lures a rational person to a bike without handlebars