Monday, August 25, 2008 - 07:07 PM
I hope the following provides an oblique view to the controversy:
Zaslow's library column was a bland public service announcement. It was sanctimonious, memorable, and essentially fake, not in the sense that it was untrue-hey, I love libraries, too-but rather in the sense that it bore no mark of original thought or genuine feeling. We journalists produce more of this crap than we'd usually like to admit.
Expressing truth is hard work. There's a story, probably apocryphal, about Pablo Picasso visiting the home of a wealthy art collector. The collector proudly displays to the artist a Picasso painting he purchased at great cost some years before. Picasso scrutinizes the painting for a moment and then pronounces: "It's a fake."
"You mean, you never painted it?" the collector sputters. "No, I painted it," Picasso answers. "But it's a fake. I often paint fakes."
--Tim Noah, Slate.com
I present this on the assumption that the greatest majority here immediately appreciates that an "oblique view" is not the searchlight that reveals the truth.
said Harry Travis, stirred by:
Jan Heine <heine94@earthlink.net>'s message of:
Sunday 24 Aug 08 at 07:56 AM,
On: [CR]Re: Two 1950s De Rosas; Was: Is the real or imposter?
[echoed below, in part<=1]
-oOo-
>Several people pointed me to what they thought was the same bike,
>bought by the seller a year or two ago at
>http://www.43bikes.com/derosa.html
>(scroll down to the green "1953" bike)
>However, looking at the head-on view, the green bike is not the same
>as the red bike now offered on e-bay.
>http://ebay.com/<blah>
>The green bike's upper head lug is very unevenly filed. On the red
>bike, the upper headlug are much straighter. The lower headlug is
>subtly different, too. Both bikes are very similar, but the red bike
>seems to have better workmanship than the green one.
>Of course, it is possible that the headlugs were filed during the
>restoration to make the bike nicer, but that would negate the idea of
>an "as original" restoration...
>Perhaps the seller owns two 1950s De Rosas, in the same size,
>apparently with the same seat cluster that according to the e-bay
>listing, Ugo De Rosa claims to have used only once? How many of these
>early De Rosas are there?
>I don't have the answer, and as I have stated before, it is possible
>that the bike is what it purports to be. It sure is an interesting
>riddle.
>Jan Heine
>Editor
>Bicycle Quarterly
>140 Lakeside Ave #C
>Seattle WA 98122
>www.bikequarterly.com
>_______________________________________________
HPT -- ----------------------------------------------------------- travis.dot.harry.trying.gmail.com DemostiX