Author: Aaron Weber

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

A couple years ago I bought a scooter as an around-town starter bike. 50ccs, but because it can go faster than 25 mph (tops out at 35), it was technically a motorcycle.

The dealer pointed out that by law (in MA) you have to handle it like any other motorcycle, but that most people register them as mopeds: that way they don’t need a motorcycle license or insurance, just a registration sticker. Well, I had the license, so I followed the law and insured it. Insuring a scooter is cheap anyway.

Sadly, a scooter is something like a stem cell: while it is protean at birth, once it is registered it is nearly impossible for it to change again. Now the dealership is reluctant to take it as a trade-in, because it’s a 50-cc motorcycle, and hell if anyone but an idiot like me will follow the damn law and register their 50-cc motorcycle as such. I’m checking with another dealership to see if they want it, and trying to get the RMV to allow me to change the registration, and we’ll see tomorrow if I’m able to trade up to something that definitely demands proper insurance and licensing.

And then, I’ll try and find somewhere to park it.

What does it take to get an impeachment in this place? What does it take? How long must I wait?

Bush signs a law but notes he won’t follow it.

Great.

On the other hand, there are two good things to come of the South Dakota mess. One: Cecilia Fire Thunder of the Oglala Sioux has volunteered to start a Planned Parenthood clinic within Sioux territory. Two: Someone has written a very funny cartoon which will greatly inconvenience a senator.

The Economist Would Use the Word Parlous Here

Every time I take a flight somewhere I buy a magazine or two to read on the plane. Sometimes it’s The Economist but as often as not it’s Motorcyclist, which has frivolity, shiny pictures and useless details to keep me occupied during a layover. But, like a lot of product-oriented journalism (see Jalopnik’s constant tilting at the glossy car mags, or mine at tech journalists), it’s written less to inform readers than to curry favor with manufacturers.

And of course, the writing is by motorcycle dudes with English degrees, so you get phrasing like “The broad, curved radiator, deep sump, and king sized triangular oil cooler say this twin is no 996. So do narrow cylinder heads that give the Testastretta its name” and “With no room for the 999’s 54mm throttle bodies and shower-type injectors, this Testastretta twin inhales through new 50mm bodies fitted with hybrid, 996-style injectors.”

What does that mean? Well, it takes some background, starting with explanations of Ducati’s desmodromic system at the Ducati tech cafe, and a definition of the testastretta from the end of this article on the S4Rs. But basically it’s mechanical pornography: it means nothing.

Obviously, motorcycle mags are ripe for being replaced or supplemented by blogs. I haven’t found a peer to Jalopnik for bikers. If I had fifty thousand dollars and a staff of two, I could do it myself. Or possibly a hundred bucks a year for hosting, plus some Google ads for revenue. Anyone care to join me?

Living Wake

Wednesday we went to Hartford to pay our respects to the matriarch of Bookdwarf‘s family, Aunt Marge. She’s in hospice now, and groggy, but laughing and smiling as her extensive network of friends, family, and fellow parishoners come to visit. She said, “we’re having the wake in the hospital.”

A nurse came in while we were there and said “Well, you look like you’re holding court!”

On the way out, I wasn’t sure what to say, so I said “it’s an honor,” and she held out her hand for me to kiss, and everyone laughed again.

Top Ten Economics Blogs

My page on econ blogs is up at toptensources.com. I was pleased with the result, although one of the senior editors made fun of my picture, which is based on one from my Flickr page.

Anyone have suggestions for future top tens? I’ve been looking for decent motorcycle blogs, but a lot of them fail to live up to the standard that Jalopnik and the rest of the top ten car blogs set for automotive coverage.

Restaurant Pick: Bengal Cafe, Cambridge MA

I was looking for a place that delivered Indian food and having no luck. Fortunately, I found something at least as good: a Bangladeshi restaurant, Bengal Cafe. Delicious, reasonably priced, and they deliver to my neighborhood. The dal was of the soup variety, which I didn’t like much, but the korma was excellent, as was the rice-pudding dessert and the bread.

Are they made from real Girl Scouts?

Someone in Bookdwarf’s cabal has given us several boxes of Girl Scout Cookies. This is a disaster for freedom, by which I mean my nutritional peace of mind.

This blow against my rock-hard abs is somewhat mitigated by adequate information about the farming practices used by the chocolate farmers whose chocolates go into their cookies and of course delicious special recipes made with those cookies.

But still, that half box (OK, quarter-box, as of this afternoon) of Thin Mints on top of the fridge is posing a dangerous threat, and must be destroyed. A targeted strike force is at the ready, and I anticipate that the destruction will be delicious.