Local Bicycle Hospitalized

Not sure if it's fun or scary that I found a bunch of pre-internet newsletters that I had written to all and sundry way back when. Kind of fun to re-read, but also kind of compulsive (the writing not the re-reading), and sobering to read about funks, etc., way back then when I like to think I'm not always like this (i.e. funked, i.e. like I've been ever since moving to this godforsaken place...) but that bears more thought later...

There are some jewels, wit-wise, happenings-wise, memories-wise, etc. Here's a bit from a Sept. 1996 newsletter that I formatted like a newspaper (a joy for me to read in present day but I shudder at the thought of all those friends slogging through it way back then - or --more probably-- blowing it off -- which is fine)...

LOCAL BICYCLE HOSPITALIZED  Toulouse Le Trek, two-wheeled, eighteen-speed companion of Sus@n Clay, 2521D E. Elm St., Tucson, was rushed to Full Cycle last month for an emergency rear derailleur amputation. On August 31st, 1994, at approximately 5:20 a.m., a rogue bandana had allegedly lodged itself in the helpless victim's derailleur as his friend, Ms. Clay, was innocently upshifting to warp speed on Elm St. just west of Tucson Blvd. The result was a near total rupture of Mr. Le Trek's rear derailleur, which, according to witnesses, was said to be hanging by its cable alone, having "snapped clean off" just below its point of attachment to the victim's frame. Later that day, in an emergency procedure performed at the Full Cycle Trauma Center, a new derailleur was fitted. Some physical and psychological therapy followed for the patient and his friend, respectively. Mr. Le Trek is home now and fully recovered from the harrowing incident. Ms. Clay was quoted at the scene of the accident as saying, "Wow... Wow. Shit. Fuck. Wow."