Trike, night, chain, link, law

[susanstinson]

• I had a beautiful bike ride last night with my love last night. She's an athlete who I've never been able to begin to keep up with in most physical pursuits (and we've been together for something like twenty-five years). Last night, we rode across the river to Hadley and then back along the bike path under a high, rounded out moon, with the bits of recycled glass (yep, it causes flats...) in the asphalt of the path sparkling in the unsteady haloes of the bike lights. It was very dark on the path in spots, there were lightning bugs, and people camping on the edge of a cornfield with a fire. The humid heat had softened in the dark. We rode back across the river, and, after the emptiness of the bike path, the old railroad bridge was full of people out to watch the moonlight on the water. I rang my bell. It was so lovely.



• Earlier in the month, one of the chains on my trike (it has two) came off and got jammed down between the gears. My fingers got covered with dark, thick grease trying to get it out, and then Nina, a former neighbor from Easthampton, stopped and had me lift one of the wheels to take the pressure off while she pulled out the chain and fit it over the sprockets again. Her fingers came up filthy, too, and she --kindly, having caused the pedals to turn the wheels once again -- told me to clean the chain. I had, not long before. But probably, I think now, with the wrong oil, and too much of it, and so attracted dirt.



• Peggy Elam has a great analysis of the study and media coverage about having fat people in one's social network.



• I've been meaning to write a long, eloquent post about this, and maybe I still will at some point, but the increasingly open stigma associated with fatness (and it was pretty darn open before now) makes efforts like the proposed Massachusetts law against discrimination based on size more even more urgent.
  
  Rep. Byron Rushing and his staff are looking for people willing to talk about their experiences with discrimination based on size. The Boston Globe article they contacted me about earlier is finished, but he wrote me:
  
  However, I do want to encourage people to "sign up" so we can refer them to future interviews. The more voices and experiences the better. I prefer Massachusetts residents ... But people from outside the state should not be discouraged because there will be national reporting and they might have a particular story that resonates for everyone.
  
  So, please, no matter where you live, if you've got a story about discrimination based on size that you'd be willing to talk about as evidence of the need for a law against such discrimination, contact Fay Sliger in Rep. Rushing's office: Fay.Sliger@state.ma.us.
  
  Here's a link to the proposed law: House bill 1844 An Act Making It Unlawful to Discriminate On the Basis of Height and Weight.
  
  Feel free to help spread the word.