What the hell do starlings have to do with motorbikes? Here’s what. From Wikipedia: Starlings are small to medium-sized passerine birds; the species familiar to most people in Europe and North America is the common starling. Starlings have strong feet, their flight is strong and direct, and they are very gregarious. From the band Pavement:  I […]

When in March, most people’s thoughts turn to Madness. Mine turn to Mapleness. Not that I’m a basketball hater or anything. It’s just that there’s something about maple sap running down collection tubes—nature whispering about winter’s looming demise, and a sure harbinger of spring—that’s more exciting to me than a bunch of college guys running up and down […]

Skiing. Riding. Riding. Skiing. With the possible exception of surfing, eating Twizzlers, or doing the New York Times Sunday crossword, they’re easily two of my favorite things to do on this green and white earth. Some of these life-loves can easily be enjoyed in the span of a single day. But not skiing and riding. Twizzlers and crosswords? Easy-peasy—I […]

It was a dark and stormy Sunday. What else to do but grab your bike and go for a ride? Once again, thanks to global warming, temperatures hovered in the mid-to-high fifties today—in mid-January. The only downside was the downpour and high winds, which made the Southport and Westport beaches pretty dramatic. The riding occasionally so, too. A few […]

Well, I done did it. After about a decade of web-surfing, forum-lurking, Craigslist-checking, and general Beemer-fantasizing, I finally did it. I took the plunge and got myself an airhead (luftkopf in German). For the uninitiated and to be clear, airhead does not refer to a bimbo trophy wife, at least not here. While airheads do inspire […]

Ground Control to Major Tom….Ground Control to Major Tom…. Take your protein pills… and put your helmet on… Ground Control to Major Tom (Ten, Nine, Eight, Seven, Six) Commencing countdown, engines on (Five, Four, Three) Check ignition and may God’s love be with you… On Tuesday, we awoke in Sector Torrey to a motel room […]

“Whether it was the ergonomics of the planes, the isolation, an individual person’s psychology, or the perspective of being up so high, break-off sometimes seemed to produce emotional extremes in pilots and others being prepped for space exploration. Some not only felt separated from Earth. They also felt like they had detached from reality.” — from […]