From: nebusj-@-rpi-.edu
Drew writes:
>On 2007-02-28 11:26 p.m., Joseph Nebus verbated:
>> - Don't miss a second of Double Letter Week, isn't that right,
>> ChewbaCCa? Two C's, Wookie Style!
>Actually, there are two E's in Wookiee, and that pair combined with the
>pair of O's make it a double double-letter word, like Gyllenhaal. (My eye
>for spotting misspellings collided with my Star Wars geekiness. Here are
>two more double-letter Star Wars terms: Tatooine and Alderaan.)
Yeah, you're right, Wookiee should have more letters in it.
I mean to double-check spellings and whatnot on all these pieces, but
that clashes with my desire to put up posts as quickly as possible
and, even more, my incredible laziness.
>> + This was a wonderfully good, silly bit.
>Yes, although I think it's the kind of humor that quickly loses its
>funniness if repeated too often. Call it "one-off comedy." I'm still
>wondering why they keep dragging out "If They Mated" every few weeks.
I would have thought this was only going to be amusing the
first night, and the second night did have this sense of grabbing on
the easy laugh, but Thursday night brought an entertaining little
twist on things.
>> Vanity and Narcissism are on the rise in College Students:
>> - Get over it. You're not as special, as genius, as almost
>> divine as Conan. The More You Know.
>Is it just me, or is Conan's ego much healthier now than it was back in the
>'90s? I don't think he would have done a self-aggrandizing joke like this
>ten years ago. While he still makes deprecating remarks about his pale,
>skinny Irishness, among other things, he also seems to engage in a decent
>amount of mock narcissism, such as when he asks, "Late Night with WHO?"
You know, given how long it was since I was able to watch the
show regularly, and how few episodes I missed in the 90s, you'd think I
would be in a great position to answer that, possibly with analysis of
mean variations in ego-boosting jokes. I just don't know, though.
>It might be nothing. But self-effacing, insecure Conan works much better
>for me than big-headed, large-and-in-charge Conan. Egocentric humor quickly
>gets old; people would rather laugh at the underdog (as well as root for him).
This is generally true, but a person who is sufficiently
charming can be funny even while telling an egotistical joke. For the
moment I think Conan is charming enough, and has enough self-deprecating
bits, that he's not in danger of coming off as a jerk, although he was
really skirting the line with that Victoria's Secret model Wednesday.
>> Lance Armstrong:
>> - He didn't mean to stare at other cyclists while competing. He
>> was looking back down the road to see the situation. It was taken to be
>> him staring this guy down. It was cool, for him anyway. Angered Laup
>> Duez (?), whome he defeated four times ... five ... six ... 45 times.
>> Must appear in Jan's nightmares every night.
>I'm no cycling maven, but I know enough about the Tour to clarify what was
>being discussed here. L'Alpe d'Huez is the most difficult hill stage in the
>Tour de France; the winner of this stage often wins the whole shebang. Jan
>Ullrich was a German rider (he retired on Monday) who was one of
>Armstrong's chief rivals during Lance's seven-Tour winning streak and was
>the recipient of "The Look" on the final climb of L'Alpe d'Huez in 2001.
Ah ... My apologies for screwing up the names. I have to plead,
once more, low volume and no closed captioning. I was pretty sure that
the angered driver Jan Ullrich was teh same mentioned several times over,
but couldn't figure L'Alpe d'Huez since I completely missed anythhing
about The Look or the Tour de France in general, and I tried to guess at
it being a driver's name.
>> - Some gentility, like waiting for a fallen rider. But now with
>> 50 or 60 or 70 very competitive guys the gentleman's code is falling
>> away and it's becoming much more cutthroat, much more international.
>> But people slow down so another can go to the bathroom, or the like.
>Does this really happen, or was Lance joking? I've heard of cyclists
>slowing down when the leader accidentally takes a spill, but not when he
>has to go to the bathroom.
Good question, and one worth pursuing more. According to
Cycling News's FAQ:
How do riders go to the toilet?
Generally, they pull over to the side of the road,
stop, and shed liquid ballast in the usual way. Some time in
the first couple of hours of the race, a senior rider (a team
leader or team captain) will organise a comfort break and the
whole peloton will slow down enough that riders can stop for
a break and easily catch up afterwards.
The etiquette is that you don't attack while a large-
scale comfort break is in progress, and you certainly don't
attack the yellow jersey when he's taking a leak, as we saw in
stage 6 [ of the 2002 Tour ] when Domo and Rabobank were berated
by Armstrong and ONCE for attempting to go after a breakaway
while race leader Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano was answering
nature's call.
On some days there will be no organised break. If the
stage is short, fast or very hot it may simply not be necessary,
but on a cold morning at the beginning of a long day's trek
across Northern France a mass disposal of that last cup of
coffee will almost certainly happen.
If a rider needs to go outside of an organised stop,
that's another situation where team-work comes into play. Along
with a couple of team-mates, the rider will drop back in the
peloton, and move to the side of the road. While his team-mates
push him along at the back of the bunch, he'll take a mobile
comfort break. It's a skilled operation, and some riders just
can't relax enough to, er, let it all hang out this way ...
It's considered extremely bad form for photographers
and TV to shoot this whole process which is why, as some readers
have observed, you never see it on TV or in pictures.
Feeding. What are the rules or etiquette for feed zones/stations?
For example, do all the riders hold their position while everyone
eats, or is permissible to attack?
Just as with taking a comfort break of the urinal variety,
the same level of etiquette applies to a comfort break of the
gastronomic kind. It is considered very bad form to attack in a
feed zone, and you will normally hear about it further down the
road if you're brave enough to try. Once the peloton has
collected their musette bags (cloth bags that contain water
bottles and various items of food) in the feed zone, the race
is back on; there's no requirement to ask the whole peloton if
they've finished their meal before attacking. In general, feeding
is permitted at any time starting from the 50 km marker up to the
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--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)
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