Back From The Brink

Iggy Pop, 32 years ago on the Dinah Shore show. Iggy gives props to Detroit and Ann Arbor.



Then he rocks out, with David Bowie on keyboards and two of Soupy Sales' kids in the band. Thanks to boing boing...



Soupy Sales died last week. The guy was muched loved in Michigan.

Rider Down. Driver Down.

Bad news. Another Michigan man pays the ultimate price while riding his bike on the road.

John DeStefanis was riding his bicycle to meet friends on Saturday night in Clinton Township, but he never made it.

A driver struck DeStafanis, 41, of Roseville, less than a block from his destination, leaving him on life support in a local hospital.

"They found his body in the middle of Gratiot," said his girlfriend Diane Ferschneider.

"They're talking about maybe taking him off life support tomorrow. And he's a father. He's a good man."

DeStafanis has five children, and friends say that despite a rocky past, he had turned his life around in recent years.

Witnesses say a dark blue sports car struck him. It may now have front-end damage.

It's an old story, right? Hit and run. Cyclist in the hospital and close to dead. There's even the local cyclists arguing whether the rider was an ignorant bike salmon or a "legit" member of the lycra set.

But this one ends a little differently than the typical "Corvette Driver Hits Cyclist and Gets Away With It" story.

With police zeroing in on him, the key suspect in a hit-and-run accident that left a bicyclist brain dead took his own life early Tuesday on the bike path outside of Metro Beach, according to police.

A man riding a bicycle on the bike path found the man’s body about 6:35 a.m. near the intersection of 16 Mile and Jefferson. A shotgun the suspect used to kill himself was found near the body, according to the Macomb County Sheriff’s Office.

“He left a couple of notes, one in his truck and one in his home, but I wouldn’t categorize the contents as a confession,” said sheriff’s Capt. Tony Wickersham.

The suspect, a 38-year-old St. Clair Shores resident, was being sought for questioning in an Oct. 4 accident on Gratiot, near Quinn, in Clinton Township that left John Destefanis with critical injuries.

I don't even know what to say. Two lives lost. A cyclist meets his end on the road, and the driver who took him out dies by his own end on a bicycle trail head. WTF?

Vacation Weekend Craptacular

I'm on vacation. Today. Officially. Unlike the Italians or French who take a month long national holiday every summer I'm doing things the American way. taking a week off and I'm going to Vegas, baby! That means gorging myself on $19 buffets. Giant cocktails by the pool. Overpriced versions of off broadway shows.

Before I go there's a few things to lay on the table. Stuff to get off my chest. Yeah, more ranting. And some props.

First off, Sue George gives mad props where props are due to a guy who put the pros on the ropes this year. A working stiff, who punches the clock 40+ hours per week. Christian Tanguy ripped up the pros this year in the NUE Series. He beat almost all of them. At the finish line of the Shenandoah 100 Bishop put it all on the line to beat Tanguy by only 20 seconds. But who was sprinting? Tanguy thought there was 2 miles of trail left! Christian is a down to earth French expat who now lives in Michigan. No pro ride, but the real deal.

"Christian is the revelation of the NUE series this year. His fitness is world class," said fellow competitor and Shenandoah Mountain 100 winner Jeremiah Bishop (MonaVie / Cannondale). "He's opening some eyes for sure."

The 34-year-old Tanguy placed second at the Mohican 100 and the Lumberjack 100 races earlier this season. In August, he finished second at the Wilderness 101 and he won the Fool's Gold 100. Last weekend, he was second at the Shenandoah Mountain 100.

This weekend is race number two of the Midwest Triple Crown, Chequamegon. How does Simonster train for such a race? By Motopacing! Mike Simonson has won The Iceman AND Ore To Shore. But Chequamegon has eluded him. Will this be the year?



While Tanguy is moving up in the world and Simonster is riding his Superfly behind a subcompact hatchback on a gravel road somewhere, the fight against Sport Class Women racers continues.

Why do they always start the sport women before the beginner men? There is always this big, race-deciding log jam in the single track section. It sucks for the guys to be stuck in "traffic", and it just HAS to suck for the ladies to be getting passed all the time.

Yeah, why do they start faster people before slower people? Oh wait. Here's a tip, dude. If you race beginner and the Sport people in front of you are in your way, it means you're not supposed to be racing beginner. It makes for good comedy, though. There's nothing funnier than an internet fight between sandbaggers over trail etiquette.



It could be worse. Instead of being a sandbagging tool who is edging his way into a healthy sport with a cool subculture, the guy could be a right wing closet racist who can't stomach the fact that an articulate black man is the president.

SM100

Early results from the finish line

Men
1. Bishop
2. Tanguy
3. Schalk
4. Jakomait
5. Koerber
6. Draugelis
7. Kuhn

Women
1. Haywood
2. Shogren
3. Lowery
4. Musto
5. Simril

Did Glenn Beck Rape and Murder a Girl in 1990?

“Did Glenn Beck Rape and Murder a Girl in 1990?”

A Treasury of Dirt Bag Videos!

How many times have you heard someone say "I'd ride my bike more if I only had somewhere to park it." What if the problem wasn't parking, but finding it again?



Bicycle Rights! Bicycle Rights!



Let's make S'mores! WTF is wrong with people in LA? I remember riding through the hills over Oakland, CA the year after the fires burned most of the hills above East Oakland. Lots of charred foundations up there. Ride through those hills today and there's nothin' but overpriced homes, bigger n' badder than they were before those fires. Wonder how long that'll last?

Let's make S'mores!


Californians Gather To Celebrate Annual Wildfire Tradition

I'm a Skeptic and an atheist, but I'd read this bible.

Book of Genesis illustrated by R. Crumb from Mark Frauenfelder on Vimeo.

Please, Please, Please let them get what they want this time.



OUCH!



OUCH!



Fuss Vom Gas

Double Down!

Yeah, that's what I'm talkin' bout! Gimme some a that KFC, yo!



Fresh off that news.....

Obese People Have 'Severe Brain Denegration'

A new study finds obese people have 8 percent less brain tissue than normal-weight individuals. Their brains look 16 years older than the brains of lean individuals, researchers said today.

Those classified as overweight have 4 percent less brain tissue and their brains appear to have aged prematurely by 8 years.

The results, based on brain scans of 94 people in their 70s, represent "severe brain degeneration," said Paul Thompson, senior author of the study and a UCLA professor of neurology.

"That's a big loss of tissue and it depletes your cognitive reserves, putting you at much greater risk of Alzheimer's and other diseases that attack the brain," said Thompson. "But you can greatly reduce your risk for Alzheimer's, if you can eat healthily and keep your weight under control."

Maybe that explains why someone would actually eat a sandwich made of two pieces of deep fried chicken hugging bacon and melted cheese food.

Crazy food ideas that'll make you fat aren't new. 80 years ago some dude filed a patent for a banana ice cream injector.



Yeah, that's a banana.

If you have any doubt that Americans are nuts when it comes to their health, take a gander at how the crack-pots act at those Heath Care Town Hall Meetings. Even John McCain feels their anti health wrath.



There's nothing like watching a bunch of fat AARP members, who are probably on Medicare and Social Security, scream like maniacs that they don't want the government instituting "socialism."