My bicycle collision last week resulted in irreparable damage to my bike, and as a consequence I have been reading up a bit on what makes a good commuter bike as well as the situation with safe cycling in Cambridge. I’ve discovered a couple things.

First, commuter bikes don’t seem to be easily available in the US. I’m talking a hybrid-type bike with fenders, a rear rack, chain guard, perhaps some sort of lights, and no fancy shocks or handlebars. They are available, but not everywhere, and not cheap. That said, there are several local bike shops around me that might have some good choices. I’ll have to do some shopping.

Second, despite its very good reputation on this count, Cambridge has made many mistakes with regard to cycling safety, and still has a long way to go before cyclists can really feel safe on Cambridge roads. A good list of local bike safety faults is maintained by cycling expert John Allen. I’ve noticed a few of these as I’ve ridden, but I’ve had just as much trouble just in terms of figuring out where it is safe to ride (not to mention my incredibly bad direction-finding ability), so those things combined have substantially reduced the scope of my cycling. I think I need to find a partner if I want to keep up this hobby.

The _Wall Street Journal_ follows the rise and fall of Wal-Mart. Until recently flying high with super centers and brand uniformity, the retail giant has begun losing sales and prestige as more affluent and conscientious customers decide convenience (location), selection (online), value added services, and niche brands are more valuable than the type of consumerism Wal-Mart peddles. A fascinating read from October 3rd, newly liberated from the WSJ paywall. *Edit:* Damnit, they only let you see the whole thing if you go through a complicated process. Instead I have reproduced the article below.

Continue reading “WSJ on the rise and fall of Wal-Mart, erstwhile retail giant”

This morning was a perfectly good morning. So at least there was that.

At work, arriving back from a brief vacation, I found many, many things needed doing, which is to be expected. Later I discovered offhand that a decision was made without my consultation to make a major and dramatic change of direction on a project on which I have invested quite a bit of effort. So that was nice. Ah, deadlines.

On my bike ride home from work, my first since the change in daylight time that makes things far darker far earlier, I was riding quickly when a car ahead of me saw what I assume was an open parking space and abruptly turned on his signal and pulled into it. I, who was rapidly approaching on the right, crashed into said vehicle, breaking off his passenger-side mirror, damaging my front wheel, and throwing me over the bike and into the curb.

The driver was extremely concerned with my well-being, as were two concerned citizens who witnessed the accident. I declined the driver’s offer of transportation to a hospital but did get everyone’s info (at their very good suggestion) and accepted a car ride the rest of the way home.

My pants were ripped and bloody and I had abrasions on my left hand and wrist and my right elbow, as well as a contusion on my right thigh. As the day progressed I discovered neck and jaw pain.

Despite this, and after disinfecting and bandaging myself up, I went through with pre-arranged plans for some video gaming over in Lincoln, and while I found the destruction of aliens particularly unsatisfying today, I did enjoy the company of others and stayed, against my better judgement, until everyone headed out at about 4:00am.

On the road, contemplating the route we were taking, the events of the day, the pains I was experiencing, and the extreme lateness, I accidentally drifted slightly onto the highway shoulder, encountering the New England paving feature roughly analogous to Botts’ Dots. The sound and vibration of the experience, rather than jarring me awake (as I was already fully awake), intrigued me. I a second time drifted slightly and deliberately onto the shoulder for a brief span. Satisfied with my “investigation” and seeing that the shoulder was narrowing ahead, I reset my route and continued driving.

So yeah, I got pulled over for that. The officer seemed convinced that I was neither drunk nor disorderly and let me on my way, but indicated that a $100 fine would be forthcoming. So I have that to look forward to, on top of everything else.

Now it is 4:45am, I’m home, I’m tired, and I’ve finished with this happy little explanation of my happy little day. Igor comforted me with a Russian saying, roughly translated as “the morning is wiser than the evening.” Morning is quickly approaching, but for our purposes let’s call it evening and maybe if I’m lucky I’ll get a solid 8 hours, and perhaps this day will be better than the last.

*Update (11/17):* Modified paragraph 2 to reflect additional sleep and common sense.

Yes, I know what The Office is, but I avoided it because it was a British transplant and it was all about the awkward office interactions, and I can’t stand that, and it was getting cancelled anyway, until it apparently didn’t.

Saw two episodes, by happenstance, in the past two days. (Um, thanks Hulu beta?) Loving it. And it’s the first show I’m picking up in a while for which watching it out of order doesn’t feel like a cardinal sin.

Plus, dropping Bionic Woman frees up a spot. 🙂

I am so antsy about the upcoming Mac OS X release. I’ve been awaiting it for several months now and using it as an excuse to not gut and reinstall my computer, but now the instability and unreliability is unbearable, and Leopard comes out this Friday.

In other news, I’m kicking myself because this weekend I decided to clear out my stocks from TD Ameritrade and consolidate the money in Bank of America, which meant putting in orders to sell all my stocks there this morning at opening of market. And then Apple went up $4. And then after hours they announced record earnings and went up another $11. Apparently I should have read the news about the next day’s earnings report. Damn. That would have been enough to buy a couple copies of Leopard. Or a few nice meals.

To the Editor:
This week another Editor in Chief of the Justice published another editorial justifying that paper’s decision to publish yet more potentially damaging information about students. It is perhaps telling that the Justice feels the need, every year or so, to passionately defend these decisions.

Arrests, controversial events, and statements made in anger are often newsworthy. And in a small, tight-knit community like Brandeis, people generally know the names of the people behind the headlines. But it is wrong for one student to decide that one bad decision or mistake by another should haunt that person for the rest of their life.

The first editorial ever published in the Hoot said it best: “We shall not be intimidated by controversy, but neither shall we sink to the level of merely titillating our readership; our mission is to inform, to bring meaningful content into readers’ lives. We are here for our readers, not for our resumes.”

I am proud to look upon a community newspaper that has flourished since I helped to found it in 2005. I am disappointed, but not surprised, to see that while the Hoot has stayed true to its mission, so has the Justice stayed true to its painful and counterproductive goal of putting notions of “journalistic integrity” ahead of the community it serves.

Daniel Silverman ’05
Founding Editor, The Brandeis Hoot