... thanks, but Blair's comment wasn't PC at all. it was more a cat's
earthy sense over time, in maybe some of these people may not have a
functional winkie, a mr wanker, a one-eyed snake, a bannana that needs
peeling, the log that needs shining, the pear that needs a scrape, etc
this goes back eons.
when i rode, i used to call my bikes "shit brain", please get me home in one
piece.
r clair
italian marriage soup tonight
alex, va 22308
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Robert Clair" <r.clair@cox.net>
> To: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
> Sent: Thursday, October 18, 2007 7:41 PM
> Subject: [CR]Gender Preference ?
>
>
>> .... my cat (a female shelter rescue) who watches the list with me on
>> occassion, is wondering why several list members continually refer to
>> bicycles in the "she" sense. some sort of ... well you get the point.
>
>
> My cat, a female foster home rescue, is utterly amazed you are perplexed,
> Robert! Men (and I suspect women, too) have always inferred feminine
> characteristics to machines from ships to cars to yes bicycles from the
> get-go. You've obviously never gone to sea. Or seen the classic film "The
> Train" where France's marvelous character actor Michel Simon, playing the
> engineer, tells a young helper "A locomotive is just like a woman, if you
> don't treat her right, she'll make your life miserable." Kipling began a
> poem "The liner, she's a lady."
>
> Of course bicycles, especially classic lightweights, are "she's". Who
> wants to collect "its", inanimate hunks of steel and alloy? Let alone ride
> them. The cool thing about cycling is that melding of men (and women) and
> machine. Every bike is different, has a different personality. A distinct
> ride. A personality if you will. If they didn't, why would will have
> dozens of them?
>
> Now you might very well think the very fact that nauseating PC-ism makes
> referring to things as "she" reprobate is sufficient reason to continue to
> do so at every given opportunity, but I couldn't possibly comment.
>
> Peter Kohler
> Washington DC USA