So cycling is political act??

Shootingstar, did you respond to the person on the other forum with what you said here? If so, what did they say?

I suspect the person calling you a commie is not someone who would listen to reason, as leaping to that conclusion from your blog post in the first place seems unreasonable. I'm curious though.

Of course, you could always accuse them of being an imperialist capitalist pig who is trying to limit your right to ride a bike and wants to force everyone to drive 1989 Chevy Suburbans at 8 mpg. How dare they step on your political rights?!?

Commuting by bike is of course a good thing, but of course saying that everyone should do it and rearrange their lifestyle to do it is going to ruffle some feathers.

I don't particularly like driving, but I like riding in traffic even less. I'm a chicken. :o And while I liked being able to walk to places and not having to pay for parking, gas and insurance, it was pretty inconvenient not to have a car at times. We looked into the car-sharing program when we were living in Cleveland, and there were so many ridiculous fees and things that it wasn't worth it at all.

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Originally Posted by tangentgirl

Shootingstar, did you respond to the person on the other forum with what you said here? If so, what did they say?

I suspect the person calling you a commie is not someone who would listen to reason, as leaping to that conclusion from your blog post in the first place seems unreasonable. I'm curious though.

Of course, you could always accuse them of being an imperialist capitalist pig who is trying to limit your right to ride a bike and wants to force everyone to drive 1989 Chevy Suburbans at 8 mpg. How dare they step on your political rights?!?

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I gave same reason that I gave here, to him yesterday: I was never comfortable driving, so gave up my license a long time ago.

He graciously said I had a good (true) story.


Really, my car-free lifestyle is a LOOOOOG history of living a life, ignorant of the full convenience of a car. So ignorance =lack of temptation???

I'm sure most TEwomen here since we cycle often, will bike 2-5 kms. to the grocery store if their neighbourhood streets allow safe cycling in snow-free seasons. Instead of jumping into the car.
A personal financial story on saving money...ironic. It is...quite capitalistic. Selfish. :rolleyes:

As for being/perceived as environmentalist: Am I consciously green? I'm pretty lazy, honest. I don't use my sink garburator for veggie scraps.....I just know it's going to get clogged like the garburator in Vancouver. Which is going to cost money to bring someone in to fix it, replace blades.

And we don't have composter in our building. Will I be lobbying for one? I doubt it. I'm not going to even talk about our new condo board who have to deal with bigger issues related to reserve fund...

I do alot of personal stuff more for both saving money and personal convenience.
So biking actually provides me extra personal convenience 'cause before I only walked or took transit. Now I have a 3rd viable option.

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Originally Posted by owlice

Or maybe they don't have a "bad conscience." Maybe they live too far from work to commute/have to ferry children and/or others hither and yon/are unable physically to cycle/don't have safe bike commuting roads between home and work/transport work equipment/etc.

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No, I actually mean the ones who tell me that they have a bad conscience. I'm not assuming everyone who doesn't bike commute has a bad conscience, honest :)

People who haven't even considered bike commuting, or who are unable to seem rarely to be bothered by my agitating for more bike commuters.

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Originally Posted by jessmarimba

Is anyone really from Colorado? :D

Would the fact that I don't drive an ancient subaru wagon as my "thrifty" car have given away that I'm not from here?

I'll go on and say yes, do guess, but since I've given it away several times on this forum I'm not sure I'll believe that you just figured it out on your own. :) Though I'll give you partial credit if you guess one of the cities I've lived in so far.

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lol on the Subaru! And if I've seen where you've given it away several times here, I've forgotten, honest!

Probably (western) PA, Ohio near western PA/bordering on WVa, or West Virginia. If I'm incorrect, just say so but don't say where, please; I have a couple of other places in mind, too, but the area above is what I think is most likely. (And thanks for playing along!)

lph, I believe you, I believe you!!!

What I probably should of said is "green orientated to the extreme". In some people's heads (anti cyclists) they seem to think being green means wearing paper clothes, eating vegan and living in a mud hut (the extreme green).

Of course this is totally silly. Yes I want everyone to be green orientated as well :)

I want everyone wearing paper clothes. (Everyone else, that is. :D)

Every rainstorm would be a party.

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Originally Posted by owlice

lol on the Subaru! And if I've seen where you've given it away several times here, I've forgotten, honest!

Probably (western) PA, Ohio near western PA/bordering on WVa, or West Virginia. If I'm incorrect, just say so but don't say where, please; I have a couple of other places in mind, too, but the area above is what I think is most likely. (And thanks for playing along!)

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Haha, if only :) That part of the country is BEAUTIFUL. But no, I've never lived there, though my mom is originally from Cleveland (close as I can get).

Funny thing though, when I was a waitress in college, all of my customers thought I had an Ohio accent. So I'm definitely giving off that vibe...or I just grew up talking like Mom.

What made you think there?

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Originally Posted by tangentgirl

Every rainstorm would be a party.

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w00t! :D :D

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Originally Posted by jessmarimba

Haha, if only :) That part of the country is BEAUTIFUL. But no, I've never lived there, though my mom is originally from Cleveland (close as I can get).

Funny thing though, when I was a waitress in college, all of my customers thought I had an Ohio accent. So I'm definitely giving off that vibe...or I just grew up talking like Mom.

What made you think there?

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I think Owlice picked up on that "needs verb-ed" construction, which is so characteristic of that region. Not to say I haven't heard it in further-west parts of Ohio. :)

Owlie is correct.

Jessmarimba, the "needs upholstered" in a previous post was what made me think this. This is an old construction in English which is retained in certain parts of the US through Scots-influenced language (as in, coming from the Scots language, a Germanic language from the Angles, spoken in lowland Scotland and Northern Ireland).

People grow up speaking generally like their peers, not their parents, though some constructions seem to be ... hmmm, how to express this... not exempt from this, but carried over further than other things, might be a good way to put it.

It may be common throughout Ohio; might want to listen carefully to your mom to see whether she uses the same construction. It is common in certain areas in and around the Appalachian Mountains (which is why I specified eastern Ohio); any time I hear this construction in Maryland, I want to, and sometimes do, ask if the speaker/speaker's parents are from West Virginia. (Answers so far has always been yes.)

So other areas with which I associate this construction -- there may be other areas, this is just where I've heard it/heard it from people from these areas -- are eastern Tennessee and Kentucky and throughout Pennsylvania, though I've heard it more in western PA/from people from western PA than in other areas of PA. Western Maryland is also part of the general area in which this construction should be heard, but oddly enough, I don't hear it there (unless the speaker/speaker's parents are from WVa).

It's funny -- interesting funny, not ha-ha funny -- that this construction persists in English even now. I always like hearing/reading it; our language is richly influenced by so many others, I feel for those who have to learn it as a second language!

Thanks for indulging me! :)

Everyone else, sorry for the hijack; I'll behave now!

That's funny - I never noticed that the phrasing there wasn't standard! Now that I think about it, I'd guess it's a variation on the more extreme "wants verb-ing" (as in, "that dress wants washing" ), which I'd pick up immediately as Appalachian.

I do say "Ya's" instead of y'all on occasion, and I know that's a midwest thing from Mom.

I'm from Richmond, VA - and my dad's family has lived there or slightly east of there since the 1650s. So I'd imagine that I either picked that up living in middle Tennessee in college or from reading a lot.

Just wanted to come back and say that my mom is laughing at me now.

She just asked, "So if we're looking at one chair with a bad paint job and one with old fabric, what would you say," and I answered with "That one needs painted and that one needs reupholstered"

She replies "I guess we can only buy new chairs from now on."

(I'll stop hijacking now too!)

jessmarimba, well, heck, Virginia is definitely included in the Appalachian states! I don't usually hear that construction from Virginians, but that could be because I hear people from northern Virginia about a bazillion times more than people in other areas of Virginia (and most of them are from someplace else, anyway). Or not. I'd expect to hear that construction more in the southwestern part of VA than in Richmond; Tennessee might have done it to you, too, but listen for it in your mother's speech. I'd be curious as to whether she uses it. If you hadn't noticed that phrasing before, you'd have probably noticed it in college (or in your reading), so I think it likely you grew up hearing it. Heck, listen for it in your dad's speech, too; with his family's long history in Virginia... well, I'm wondering where those folks came from and whether there were Scots speakers in the mix.

And the construction you're after for the dress is "that dress wants washed." :D