Praise Lob.
On Tue, Dec 11, 2012 at 12:44 PM, pb <pbridge...@aol.com> wrote: > I do not have a dog in this hunt, I really don't care one way or the > other, and I didn't read the book, but I will note the following: > > - The story of George is interesting (click through the photo to read > about him). The guy rides a bike, and I suspect that Grant would enjoy > meeting him. > > - Grant managed to offend me at some point in most issues of the > Reader. Over the years, RBW lost a good amount of my discretionary > spending as a result of various things I read in the Reader. I was baffled > and confused by positions he took, and comments he made, which seemed > snarky to me -- earnestly snarky, determinedly snarky, unecessarily snarky, > rather than good-humored, witty observations. I was a guy with a dozen > bikes in the garage, in a wide variety of flavors, all of them expensive, > all of them with lots of miles on them, some of them very racy, some of > them lugged and Rivvish, virtually all of them subject to ongoing > replacement (in other words, each of those hooks was potentially a business > opportunity for RBW), and I had the means to be able to buy the products > Grant was offering... and he repeatedly told me that I was clueless about > my almost lifelong avocation. I gather George had a reaction to Just Ride > which was along the same lines. > > I recovered from my reactions to the Reader a long time ago. Water over > the dam. Shrug. I own and have owned Rivs. Yes, I appreciate Grant's > positive aspects, and contributions, while shaking my head at some of his > idiosyncracies as well as at what I think are poor business decisions -- > hey, none of my business except that someone needs to finally tell him that > he tends to build top tubes that are too long (and too numerous, but I > digress). I'm not surprised that someone else might respond to aspects of > Grant's writing as I did. An analogy to Grant's style of > communication that occurs to me is a soccer coach who tells kids that they > should play soccer instead of football because football is stupid, and > people who play football are fools who have been tricked. Wouldn't it be > more productive -- and overall much more positive -- to invite the kids to > play soccer because it's a great game and they're going to have a blast? > Some of them might even wind up playing both football and soccer! How cool > would that be? (No, I'm not a football fan. It's an analogy. Substitute > "baseball" or "swimming" or "cycling" or "video games" in place of > "football", if you don't like the football analogy.) > > I'm grateful that, unlike George, when I am reading for pleasure, I > have learned to toss something aside if I don't enjoy it. You'll never > find a review on Amazon from me that reports, "I hated this book from the > first page, and steadily hated it more and more until finishing page 742." > (Or worse, a one-star review that says something like, "I have tried this > in the past, I have always hated it, and yes, I still hate it and it still > sucks, and it gets one star!) On the other hand, occasonally I will go > back and check on something that I haven't liked in the past. BSNY is an > example of the latter, and references to him spurred me to wander over that > direction. Today's column confirms for me that, unless I take up pot > smoking on a Rastafarian scale, his writing will likely continue to hold > zero interest for me, although I did note his admission that his sense of > humor stopped evolving in the 8th grade, which helps to explain a lot of > things. > > And now, back to your regularly scheduled programming. :-) > > pb > > > > > On Monday, December 10, 2012 8:29:09 AM UTC-8, numbnuts wrote: > >> http://georgethecyclist.**blogspot.com/2012/12/grant-** >> petersons-racing-acumen.html<http://georgethecyclist.blogspot.com/2012/12/grant-petersons-racing-acumen.html> >> >> Regards, >> Chris >> Redding, Ca. >> > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "RBW Owners Bunch" group. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msg/rbw-owners-bunch/-/T5D88Y26jvMJ. > > To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en. > -- Cheers, David Redlands, CA ** "Censorship is telling a man he can't have a steak just because a baby can't chew it." -*Mark Twain* -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
