Icky slug (ickyslug@aol.com) wrote: : I often ride my uni around here in downtown Minneapolis, and of course I draw : all of the usual remarks from passers-by, none of which are probably new to : anyone here. After some thought I have arranged them in what I believe is the : order of frequency with which these comments come my way.
: 1 - Where’s your other wheel? 10 - Good job!
On the other side of the atlantic I often get the yell
Mum to Kid 'Look at that funny man on that funny bike ’
This really pisses me off, I’m not funny, not a man and it’s not a bike.
generally the kid doesn’t even give a stuff either and just wants to be left in
peace with their tellytubie.
Sarah Miller wrote: > > On the subject of daft comments > > Icky slug (ickyslug@aol.com) wrote: > : I often ride my uni around here in downtown Minneapolis, and of course I
draw > : all of the usual remarks from passers-by, none of which are probably new to > : anyone here. After some thought I have arranged them in what I believe is
the > : order of frequency with which these comments come my way. > > : 1 - Where’s your other wheel? 10 - Good job! > > On the other side of the atlantic I often get the yell > > Mum to Kid 'Look at that funny man on that funny bike ’ > > This really pisses me off, I’m not funny, not a man and it’s not a bike. > generally the kid doesn’t even give a stuff either and just wants to be left > in peace with their tellytubie. > > sarah
Bloody evil Tellytubbies! (grin)
Kim Potter: Unusually Diverse Entertainments http://www.kimpotter.co.nz
entertainer@kimpotter.co.nz
4/102 Springfield Rd St Albans, Christchurch. 0-3-355 2971 Mobile: 025-2260 558
“Home is where you hang your @”
> I get one particular question a lot in Oakland, California: “Is that hard?” My > stock answer is, “Only as hard as the people watching me are amazed.”
My stock answer is that it is easier than learning to walk, which takes most
people a couple of years of daily practice before they are stable, with a lot of
falling down in the meantime. It’s also a good analogy for people who ask how to
learn. I say it’s much the same as learning to walk
you try it, you fall off, you try it again.
As to things people say - I was once riding along holding hands with my
girlfriend (now wife) who was on foot (she’s a luddite). Someone asked her “Can
he do that if you let go?”
And once a woman with two big bags of shopping (one in each hand) just dropped
them and silently gazed as I rode past.
regards, Ian SMith
–
|\ /| Opinions expressed in this post are my own, and do
|o o| not reflect the views of Amos, my mbu puffer fish.
|/ | (His view is that small snails are very tasty.)
Amos now on the web at http://www.achrn.demon.co.uk/amos.html
I couldn’t let this one rest…even if it’s off the subject a bit…
My daughter (aged 2) is an avid fan of our unicycle hockey matches and my
friends that ride unicycles…she also loves the “Teletubbies” and would
probably be more interested in watching someone unicycle than watch Teletubbies.
Anyway trying to explain to a 2 year old that one wheel is a unicycle and two
wheels is a bike is not that easy!
Cheers
Glenn
> On the other side of the atlantic I often get the yell > > Mum to Kid 'Look at that funny man on that funny bike ’ > > This really pisses me off, I’m not funny, not a man and it’s not a bike. > generally the kid doesn’t even give a stuff either and just wants to be left > in peace with their tellytubie. > > sarah
I love the things that drunk people yell. Being on a university campus, there’s
always some drunk tossing up a few un-needed comments. One of the better ones
was last night. Riding by the bars the following dialog occured between two
people that could barely stand up: Drunk 1: What is that thing? Drunk 2: I can’t
see that far. Drunk 1: I think its a uni-blabla [takes him 2 or 3 tries to get
out unicycle] Drunk 2: Could be…but its only got one wheel. Drunk 1: Hey!
That guy’s got balls Drunk 2: May be, but he’s only got one. Drunk 2: That’s the
BLEEP-BLEEP-BLEEP dummest thing I’ve BLEEPIN ever BLEEPIN seen. That guys the
biggest BLEEPIN BLEEP I ever saw…[a rash of foul language censored for the
kids continues until I’m out of sight]
I may have shared this one before, but I think its worth saying again. A couple
years ago, I was riding to class and a friend was behind me on foot. He later
told me what a girl said after I had passed her. It went something like this:
“Hey thats the unicycle guy! He’s a campus phenomena. He’s like the naked guy at
Berkley!” For those of you who haven’t heard of the naked guy at Berkley, there
was a guy a few years back that went to class at Berkley naked as a freedom of
speech thing. And no, I’ve never unicycle naked!!
Another good comment I got was from a guy in nasty old pickup. He leaned his
head out the window to no doubt yell something really foul. From the looks of
him, he wasn’t a real bright guy, so I was looking forward to giving him a
snappy come-back. He leaned out and yelled in a really mean voice, “HEY!!!”,
then there was a long pause. I was ready for the put down. He was obviously
trying to think of something to say, but having trouble. Then he said “That
guy’s on one wheel”. Apparently he couldn’t think of anything to say, so he was
forced to state the obvious. I think that may be the only mean comment I’ve
gotten that I didn’t have a reply to.
A recent beautiful sunny warm Monday I rode past a man who was hard at work. He
was hot, dirty and sweaty and he stopped working and leaned on his shovel for a
moment and watched me. He said “That looks hard” but I had to tell him the
truth, “It’s not as hard as what you do all day.”
When little children ask if I’m a clown I just say “No, are you a clown” For
some reason they seem to think that’s really funny.
Another funny thing I hear is “Hey, look at that one-wheeled bicycle!”
The thing that bugs me is when people start singing that circus song… Deet
deet deedle-eedle deet deet dee dee dee… Argh!
John Hoy wrote: >The thing that bugs me is when people start singing that circus song… Deet >deet deedle-eedle deet deet dee dee dee… Argh!
YES! I HAAAAAAAAAAAATE (I need a bigger font!) that one! AAAAARGH! I was even on
a TV show once (KTV on CNBC) where the host started doing that while I was
riding my tiny unicycle.
I think it’s called Entry of the Gladiators, and it should be banned from all
unicycle-watchers.
> … For those of you who haven’t heard of the naked guy at > Berkley, there was a guy a few years back that went to class at Berkley naked > as a freedom of speech thing. And no, I’ve never unicycle naked!!
Yep, you didn’t come to BUC5 in Edinburgh.
Roger
----------------------------------------------------
Roger.Davies@Octacon.co.uk
Stockton, North East England
For information on The British Juggling Convention
<a href="http://homepages.enterprise.net/mini/bjc12.html">http://homepages.enterprise.net/mini/bjc12.html</a>
I’ve had all the usual comments too, but here’s a few that were a little
different :
15 miles into a charity bike ride, a group of riders behind me listening
whispering before coming in out in a chorus of “EASY LIFE UNICYCLING …”
(It was a Radio 1 catchphrase at the time - usually applied to things like
Brain Surgery)
On the second day of a wet Polaris Event “I’ve seen some mechanicals in my
time but …”
Also on a different but just as wet Polaris “We are not worthy, We are
not worthy”
Best of all - riding on the pavement towards an old couple. The 75 year old
woman pushing her more aged husband in a wheelchair didn’t scowl at me
dissapprovingly or mutter anything about “shouldn’t be aloud…”, instead she
waved her fist in the air and whooped “WAY TO GO!”
I was drum major of a marching band for a year, and we played that march. We
also played the march which is used by Monty Python. Try and march looking
serious with that kind of music playing behind you!
nic
On Fri, 4 Sep 1998, Foss, JohnX wrote:
> John Hoy wrote: > >The thing that bugs me is when people start singing that circus song… Deet > >deet deedle-eedle deet deet dee dee dee… Argh! > > YES! I HAAAAAAAAAAAATE (I need a bigger font!) that one! AAAAARGH! I was even > on a TV show once (KTV on CNBC) where the host started doing that while I was > riding my tiny unicycle. > > I think it’s called Entry of the Gladiators, and it should be banned from all > unicycle-watchers. > > jf
In article <6sprmq$59t$1@nnrp1.dejanews.com>, <dharmabum22@yahoo.com> wrote: > > people do say the dumbest things. maybe we should just tell them that > bicycles aren’t really bicycles… they’re unicycles with with a training > wheel for the gyroscopically challenged! L
Something similar has become my typcial response to “Where’s your other wheel?”
What, you still use a training wheel?
And now that I’m able to go about 50 feet on my ultimate wheel I’m thinking of
adopting the motto:
Training wheels are for weenies and seats are for wimps.
All in good fun folks. No flames please.
–
J Dana Eckart, PhD, PP-RH, KA4EVL | It’s so nice to be insane, dana@runet.edu |
no one asks you to explain. http://www.cs.runet.edu/~dana | – Helen Reddy
Nicholas Seow Chiang Price wrote: >I was drum major of a marching band for a year, and we played that march. We >also played the march which is used by Monty Python. Try and march looking >serious with that kind of music playing behind you!
I have to think of it from a unicyclist’s perspective. I’ve ridden in many a
parade, and I think whatever music is near you will affect the way your group
rides, whether it’s a set formation or not.
A band in a parade doesn’t need to play more than two or three songs because
their audience doesn’t hear any repetition. Some bands play lots of songs but
others don’t. One of the least fun bands to ride near was a bagpipe group one
time in Michigan. I like bagpipes, and they played all right, but I think they
were only playing the same two songs over and over. Or it just sounded like it.
And of course those had to be two of the most common bagpipe songs. I don’t know
their names, but it’s the same ones you hear whenever you hear bagpipes, and
we’d already heard them many times before, in other parades.
At the opposite end of the scale were the Puerto Rican parades I’ve ridden in.
That’s the annual one in Manhattan, and one I rode in with Constance Cotter and
a bunch of our PR friends in Ponce, Puerto Rico in 1992. The New York parade was
always huge, and some years would be a six hour parade. This meant the number of
people in the parade exceeds the number of spectators you’d find at an average
sized parade. We always rode with the float representing Isabela, Puerto Rico,
the town where unicycling started there. Those parades were always full of very
upbeat music and very happy people. We always had a blast despite the nasty July
heat. The one in Puerto Rico was also a blast, despite the February heat. Even
though we drank water during the parade, I can remember few times being as
thirsty as I was that day.
Also you occasionally are fortunate enough to ride near a really cool marching
band. “Cool” in this case means cool music. If a band near me were playing the
Monty Python theme, I would find myself compelled to make raspberry noises with
my tongue at the proper cues. This would be okay of course, because the audience
would probably be doing it too, in a shower of spit!
