| A Personal Rememberance by John Allen, League Board Member
In 1972, I was halfway home with a flat tire and walked into a bike shop that was just closing. Sheldon stayed late to fix it. That's how I first met him. There were 46 bicycles in or around his house "with a few shared wheels", by his recent count, mostly in his basement. He didn't buy bicycles off the shelf -- as a challenge to his mechanical ingenuity, and a way to spend less money and spend more time doing what he liked to do, he cobbled up customized bicycles from parts he acquired mostly through special deals, barter or secondhand, to suit himself or someone in his family. He often came up with a something unique, clever and useful. You may read about his bicycles on his Web site. He had an eye for style, but also, one or two rusty clunkers hung out by the back door getting rustier, for the quick ride to the convenience store, and several old hulks of bikes lived under the front porch.
Along Cuba's highway, word of new president met with calm, hope
Like the traffic, life moves slowly along this Cuban highway. But on Sunday, word that the country had its first new president in nearly 50 years traveled fast, and encountered a range of opinions. For some residents in the towns and cities along the Carretera Central - the "Central Highway" - Raul Castro's elevation offers hope for change after decades of rule by his brother Fidel. But others favored calm and stability over any startling new approaches. The pothole-ridden highway runs east from Havana all the way to Cuba's second city, Santiago, on the extreme opposite end of the island, a journey of roughly 500 miles. Modern vehicles often have to slow down and wait for the chance to pass 1950s coupes, men on horseback, bicycles and rickshaws. In Santiago, 67-year-old retiree Alicia Menero was among a group of people lined up to buy ground pork at a government-run street stall.
ChiTrib Blogger: Should Catholics Go Vegetarian on Fridays?
Yesterday my colleague Noel Sheppard noted that some Anglican bishops are urging their flocks to go "carbon" free during Lent. Along the same eco-insanity line, Chicago Tribune's religion blogger Manya Brachear submitted a post on Tuesday wondering if there's a "moral obligation" that Catholic priests have to urge their parishioners to go "fishless" or vegetarian on Fridays given concerns about mercury contamination: Roman Catholic bishops once urged parishioners to observe meatless Fridays as a year-round act of penance. Since Vatican II, bishops have upheld meatless Fridays only during Lent, the 40 days leading up to Easter. The only exception is fish, prompting an annual run on seafood markets and a slew of fish fries in place of church potlucks. But the dangers of eating tuna and swordfish, which scientists say is loaded with mercury, might be more flagellation than bishops had in mind.
Kynt Cothron and Vyxsin Fiala eliminated from 'The Amazing Race 12'
"Kynt and I have gotten to enjoy and appreciate what is unique and beautiful about so many different cultures," added Vyxsin. "Though The Amazing Race is over for us, I know in my heart-of-hearts that as long as Kynt is in my life, the adventure will never end." The Amazing Race 12's eighth episode began with the five remaining teams leaving Boboli Gardens in Florence, Italy, which served as the seventh leg's Pit Stop and required the teams take a mandatory rest period. .
Editorial: Safety net let go of New Cassel kids
The resulting investigations and incriminations will further pinpoint what went wrong and perhaps answer the question of whether this tragic killing of three young children by a mentally unstable mother could have been prevented.
Brewer knew she was required to be in Family Court on Monday, the result of a complaint filed by the father of her two sons over her refusal to allow him to visit them. The court, which had been seeking more sophisticated drug testing of Brewer after her initial tests were negative, had warned her in January to allow the father visitation.
"If I find out ... that did not occur, we will bring you in very quickly and the Court will have to make some tough decisions. Do you understand that?" asked the judge. "Okay," she replied.
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Adjusting to a land their people once fled
He used to go to her house to gamble with her father and uncles. After a few months of flirting, he had his parents in the United States call her parents in Phnom Penh to ask for her hand. "I know the traditions," Bun said. "They accepted me." A neighbor asked Oeur Chomnan's mother why on earth she would let her daughter marry such a man. "I told my mom, 'Ignore them. Nobody is perfect,' " Oeur Chomnan said through a translator. She likes that Bun is not like other Khmer men. "He meets a rich and powerful guy, he never bows down," she said. "He doesn't care. I like that. I don't like a coward." Indeed, Bun's and Mel's clash with the country's Buddhist ethos could not have been more severe. For Bill Herod, an American minister who has been working with the returnees since the first group arrived, Bun's Yamaha dirt bike is a symbol of their unwillingness to adapt to Cambodian society.
Businesses Unharmed in California Wilfires
RAMONA, CAWhile most manufacturers and shop owners escaped unscathed from the recent wildfires that swept through Southern California, most reported some form of business disruption. Ellsworth was forced to evacuate its headquarters in Ramona, setting up a temporary administrative center in Oceanside. The companys inventory and manufacturing are still intact. Ellsworth has continued filling standing orders, and orders taken from Interbike. The bad news is that the organic avocado grove that the company worked to restore on their administrative premises was burned in the fire, said George Patten, who handles public relations for Ellsworth. The grove houses the administrative, design and warehouse buildings at the Ellsworth headquarters. Oakley, located in Orange Countys Foothill Ranch, got an up close and personal look at the Santiago fire.
Power wagon: Volvo's new XC70 is an elegant 'crossover' built for ...
The wagon drops the five-cylinder turbocharged 2.5-liter engine and replaces it with a naturally aspirated 3.2-liter inline six. Rest assured the Union of Concerned Scientists was not involved. Upon hearing the news of an engine getting bigger, the group will undoubtedly send representatives to CNN to discuss how its theoretical engines have never emitted one molecule of smog-forming pollutants -- a true statement given the scientists haven't built one. Instead, real car people at Volvo built an inline six that produces 235-horsepower, 27 more horses than the five-banger. And it creates 236-pound-feet of torque, which matches the turbocharged engine. However, the newer, bigger engine only hits 22 mpg on the highway compared with the 2007, which got 25 mpg on the highway. The difference isn't so much an efficiency drop as much as the Environmental Protection Agency's more stringent standards on 2008 models.
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