The following feature was found in issue #368 of the “Comic News”
(America’s only Weekly Humor Magazine):
Truth or Tabloid! Decide which headlines are the truth and which are
tabloid fantasy. Answers on page 15:
Pro Golfer Gets Psyched By Pretending Ball Is Her Hubby
Sports Shrink: “To Win, Play To Lose”
Pit Crew Refuses To Put Air in Jeff Gordon’s Tires!
Crazed Climber Falls Off Mountain On Purpose
Purist Anglers Catch Fish With Their Hands
Mountain Unicycling: An Extreme Sport Created By Clowns
Page 15:
TABLOID (further details omitted)
TABLOID (further details omitted)
TRUTH (further details omitted)
TRUTH (further details omitted)
TRUTH (further details omitted)
TABLOID. There is an extremely minor sport called mountain or
rough-terrain unicycling, but none of the vicious competitors have
been spotted hurtling downhill while juggling watermelons. In fact,
they’re a grimly determined bunch. Take this excerpt from a mountain
unicycling web site: “Mountain unicycling has been a sort of
revolution in the unicycling community, sparking a tremendous effort
to build better, stronger unicycles
. . . certainly anyplace a bike can go, a unicycle can follow. And we can
still turn sharper, and fit through narrower spaces than bikes!”
Take it this way: While municyclists are generally “determined” folks and
attract likewise, now in addition there may be an influx of people who
feel like becoming “grimly determined”. Why not? Also the rest reads like
a (harsh kind of) commercial like “better than a bike” etc. And about the
“extremely minor” qualification: I guess it’s just true after the recent
talk in the newsgroup about the rarity of spotting unicyclists in the wild
(let alone MUnicyclists).
Klaas Bil
On Sat, 22 Dec 2001 10:20:53 -0800, “Nathan Hoover”
<nathan@movaris.com> wrote:
>So it’s not true after all that any publicity is good publicity. > >—Nathan > >
–
“To trigger/fool/saturate/overload Echelon, the following has been picked
automagically from a database:” “Texas, Medco, Secure Internet
Connections”
Well, if it spreads the word about the sport (to the point of getting
others interested in trying), I suppose it’s a good thing. Still, it did
hurt my eyes just a bit to read the words the author chose.
It is rare that I will ride my unicycle down the street without hearing at
least one giggle from someone as I ride by. Usually, this makes me feel
somewhat angry (especially when I’m working on a difficult trick). I wish
there were a good way to explain to people that I don’t ride for
attention, or to entertain others.
I suppose we’ll just have to wait for the time when people realize that
clowns aren’t the only people who ride unicycles. At least the vast
majority of publicity out there is helping that time come sooner.
jeff lutkus
> So it’s not true after all that any publicity is good publicity. > > —Nathan > > >
_________________________________________________________________________-
__ > rec.sport.unicycling mailing list - > www.unicycling.org/mailman/listinfo/rsu
Some times, weather we like it or not, our skills will bring joy to others.
I don’t understand the reticence tword performance- think of the increduelity we would look apone a jymnist doing back flips in public then scowling, “I do it for the ART.”
Jeff, you rock- this is your burden to bare. Use this awsome power only for good.
> I don’t understand the reticence tword performance- think of the > increduelity we would look apone a jymnist doing back flips in public > then scowling, “I do it for the ART.”
The difference is, I would not laugh at said gymnist.
On the topic of performance, though, I think that any skill performer will
agree, there are times to practice, and there are times to perform. (And
there’s practicing for a performance too, of course.)
At any rate, different people aproach any sport differently. I ride
because I can, and because I enjoy that. I did not learn to ride that I
might eventually could perform (though I have been on stage on a unicycle
once now, and plan to do this several more times in the future). But,
because I had the chance to perform, and because I felt confident enough
about my abilities to do so, and because I thought I would gain something
in the process, I did.
For some, performance is the modivation to learn new skills. For others,
the skills are the modivation in themselves. Whatever modivates you, let
it. The more people who ride, and the more who enjoy riding (in any
context), the better.
