the sower
A statue on Duke’s East Campus, the Sower. I took this picture a few months ago, long before any of the current mess surrounding Duke’s Lacrosse team. You can’t quite see the infamous house in the background, but 610 Buchanan is only two blocks north.
One thing I like about living in Durham is that the community is so sophisticated that it doesn’t wait for the local media to tell us what’s going on, what’s relevant, and what matters in current events. My favorite sections of the local newspapers are the Herald Sun’s letters to the editor and the News and Observer’s Op-Ed page. A neighbor and Duke professor Orin Starn wrote this great Op-Ed piece that’s sure not to sit well with most Dukies and Duke alum.
contrast
I’m definitely back from the wilderness.
linville gorge
I’ll share a few pics from a gorgeous spring weekend backpacking Linville Gorge. We went ahead with the planned trip despite a predicted 90% chance of rain, and we really couldn’t have asked for better weather. Other than a brief (but intense) thunderstorm at 4AM Friday night and some drizzle on Saturday, the rain held off. The cold front that pushed the rain on by brought some colder temperatures for Saturday night and Sunday.
Hawksbill, as seen from Babel Towers.
Classic Linville Gorge — the boulders below are bigger than Chevy Tahoes. And cooler too.
In 2000, Linville Gorge suffered a pretty extensive forest fire, the remainder of which is still obvious. Much of the steepest parts of the western rim were affected. Approximately 5,500 (of the Gorge’s total 12,000) acres burned. The fire cleared out both the underbrush and many of the taller trees. As the affected plants’ and trees’ root systems died and loosened the soil, there’s also been a lot of erosion.
By Sunday morning, nothing but clear blue skies.
lending GM some help
Chevy’s advertising division is holding a contest, inviting the public to make the next Tahoe commercial. They provide the layout, video shots, and choices of music. You provide the text that will inspire folks to run out and buy an SUV.
Here’s my entry. I’ll let you know if I win.
For the inevitable time when GM removes my contribution from their website, AlaskaAction has kindly ripped it and hosted it over at YouTube.
Farquhar engine
Out for a ride this past weekend, my friend and I came across this…
Not sure what it is/was, I came home and did a little research. Words in relief were still legible on the front flap, despite decades of rust. All it says, however, is AB Farquhar York, PA. But that was enough for me to track down a photo of what this steel cylinder might have been years ago.
working late
Bull City Bikers: Michael Bérubé
Even though I got behind and am posting this in April, there is a March Bull City Biker. And his name is Michael Bérubé. 
Now, some of you may already know him for one of at least two reasons… first, he’s a professor of Literature and Cultural studies at Penn State University. A leader in academia, he’s well published in his field and engaged in a perpetual debate with conservative “academic” pundit David Horowitz over whether there can be an articulate and sound anti-war movement in this country. Second, he’s a reknown blogger who occasionally even blogs about cycling. Example.
For the month of March, Bérubé endured a short-term fellowship at the National Humanities Center. After an incident where he backed his car into the NHC Director’s car, he decided to stick to his original plan and bike to work. He lived downtown and rode a borrowed bike along the American Tobacco Trail and the Cornwallis Rd bike lanes to get to Research Triangle Park.
Since he’s a cyclist and famous blogger, I thought it would be fun to make him the March Bull City Biker and see what he has to say about cycling and Durham.
I asked him first what bike(s) he owns and rides regularly…
The dang bike claims to be a Trek Clyde with a Bontrager frame, but the Clydes online don’t look anything like mine. Maybe I have a decidedly ungangsterlike Clyde Commuter. But it’s black and silver, and that looks cool.
What’s your primary flavor of riding?
Commuting, Clyde-style.
What’s the length and frequency of your average ride?
3-4 miles, two to four times a week once the central-Pennsylvania tundra recedes.
Why did you start riding and why do you still ride?
Because I live about a 20-minute walk from my campus office at Penn State, and I don’t have the 40 minutes/day to spare. Driving in takes 3 minutes, parking takes another 5, and the walk from the parking garage is 10. The bus schedule is pegged to the sunspot cycle, I believe. Biking, by contrast, takes six minutes one way, ten the other. (It’s all downhill to campus, and, strangely, all uphill home.)
What’s the most unusual thing you’ve seen while out for a ride?
Well, I’d have to go back to my days biking around midtown Manhattan in the early 1980s, when on one occasion I saw a man walking a llama up Sixth Avenue.
How would your world be different if you wake up tomorrow and there are no more cars?
First I’d pocket a couple thousand dollars in auto insurance costs (I have a 19-year-old son), and then I’d buy me a bike that has more than four speeds. These central-Pennsylvania hills demand some serious shifting.
What’s one thing Durham could do to become more bike friendly?
Through a short-term visitor’s eyes? It would help if downtown didn’t look and ride like an archaeological dig. But that Tobacco Trail rocks.
About
nicomachus.net is the virtual representation of Phillip Barron, who is responsible for all of the writing and photography, unless otherwise credited. Want to know more?
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