Being There

When we first heard the dog, Ryan was 50 meters or so ahead of me pedaling through thick Northwest rainforest on Sandy Hook Road in Kitsap County.  This would turn into one of the most memorable dog encounters i've ever had on a bicycle.

It wasn't the deep threatening bark of a guard dog, the kind that makes a cyclist's heart skip a beat.  It was a yip yip yip of a very excited, perhaps overly arrogant, little city dog. As we passed a small break in the thick ferns a tiny 5 inch high, fluffy, yellow dog came shooting out of the driveway, as if fired with a rocket.  The little dog seemed certain that it was as ferocious and frightening protecting it's territory as an angry lion. 

I was a little shocked when it didn't stop at the end of the driveway, but instead shot right out into the street.  My deeply embedded cyclist's dog alert kicked in a little late.  I recovered a bit and held my line as the squirrel sized dog fiercely yelped at Ryan's passing; and then, when the bicycle was safely past, continued it's high speed trajectory straight out into the street, making it clear that it COULD have eaten that invader alive if it WANTED to.

My brief fear dissipated, but was replaced by a worry that i might run over the cute little bugger.  As i neared the point where i was going to have to take evasive action, the little dog noticed me coming down the road and was completely shocked, never considering there could be two of us.  Forgetting any attempt at false heroics, it decided to turn around and head for the safety of it's yard.  However it was still moving forward very fast from it's unrestrained launch out of the driveway, and it's tiny claws could get no grip on the wet rainforest asphalt.  Sliding half way across the pavement like a fluffy yellow hockey puck, it finally came to a stop near the center of the road.  Instantly it's legs started pumping to get away from the approaching bicycle, to try to get it back to the driveway, but the only effect at first was straight out of a roadrunner cartoon:  the dog stayed in one place as all four feet moved independently, frantically slipping on the pavement. 

I was no longer in danger of hitting the cute furball, but i was laughing so loudly that Ryan heard me.  The dog's paws finally got some traction and Ryan turned around just in time to see a five inch yellow streak heading back into the rainforest.

Ryan and i were 40 miles into a 50 mile loop from the Bainbridge Ferry up to Port Gamble and back down via Big Valley Road, historic Poulsbo and Lemolo Road.  It's a wonderful, hilly ride.  We stopped at Chief Seattle's grave in Suquamish on the way up after having a magnificent breakfast at the Streamliner Diner in Winslow right off the ferry.


At the end of the day we took a detour on Bainbridge Island to kill some time waiting for the ferry. We passed a really cool crooked little house, with a bigger crooked house being built next to it.

Following the forecast, and the weather of the past several days, we both prepared for wet, cold, windy weather, loading up on extra layers of wool and jackets.  Except for a brief sprinkle at Port Gamble it was a warm, calm, magnificent day, with dramatic clouds and hints of blue.  We both rode in a single long sleeved layer carrying a HUGE bundle of clothes on our rear rack.

I was pretty slow all day.  Ryan is always faster than me, but i was slower than usual, and i'm pretty tired tonight.  There were hills that were a bit of a struggle and i probably shouldn't be this tired;  but i am and it feels kind of good. 51 miles and 2,800 feet of climbing.

It was a wonderful ride, a loop i have been wanting to do for a long time and one i'm sure i will do again.  The riding was GREAT, but the best part was the exhilaration of being in these amazing places, the expansive water views and the dark mossy rainforest. 

Much of the area we passed through is deeply and forever Salish.  It's a powerful feeling for me visiting, passing through.  We stopped to see if the Suquamish museum was open (it wasn't, which guarantees another ride!) and breathed their air and felt the power of their land where the forest meets the sea.    I adore the forest of cedars and moss and ferns.  I love the clouds and rain, the mountains and fjords, the streams and hills.  I love this Salish land more than i can express. 

We talked all day.  We talked about the news, about our daily lives, about bicycles, but we kept coming back to the reasons that we ride.  We agreed that the physical exertion is valuable.  We both share a joy in such an amazingly elegant machine driven by our own power (and the fuel at the bakeries along the way).  We agreed that the pure fun of the wind in our hair, the rain on our face, the road moving beneath us is a pleasure that would be hard to live without

But for both of us just the being there is the heart of this thing.  The bicycle is just the means, the thing that gets us there and puts us right in the world.  Feeling the world, experiencing the places, the things, the weather.  Being in it, maybe even being a tiny part of it briefly, i feel special.  My joy is deep.  Like so many rides, the places and the experience, and the honor of the experience will stay with me for a long time.

That and a little yellow dog sliding across the road.

Seattle's Steepest Streets Slip-up

During our recent snow week, Capitol Hill Seattle Blog, which covers the news for my neighborhood, was discussing sledding options and linked to a post from a couple of years ago. That post referenced the steepest streets page on the City of Seattle website.

I went to the City's page and took a look at the list, as this kind of thing interests me. My first impression was that the list looked slightly different from the one i'd seen on the City's page back in the 1990s, and still seemed to omit some streets in south Seattle but nevertheless i accepted it as accurate.

Here's the list (steepest blocks in Seattle from the City's page):

26.04% E Roy St (25th Ave N to 26th Ave N)
23.8% E Boston St (Harvard Ave to Broadway Ave)
23.6% E Highland Dr (24th Ave N to 25th Ave N)
22.6% Mercer St (Melrose Ave to Eastlake Ave)
22.5% E Boston St (Boylston Ave to Harvard Ave)
22.4% Mercer St (24th Ave N to 25th Ave N)
22.3% E Prospect St (24th Ave N to 25th Ave N)
22.0% Helen St (24th Ave N to 25th Ave N)
21.7% Helen St (25th Ave N to 26th Ave N)
21.5% Ward St (25th Ave N to 26th Ave N)

The page also lists the steepest unpaved street as:
28% NW 60th St (2nd Ave NW to 3rd Ave NW)
which is steeper than the steepest above.

However, as i looked closer, i noticed something interesting.
Two of these streets don't exist!

22.6% Mercer St (Melrose Ave to Eastlake Ave)
22.5% E Boston St (Boylston Ave to Harvard Ave)

Both were removed before1961 as part of the the construction of Interstate 5 which plowed a huge trench through the heart of the city, removing hundreds of streets and over 5,000 houses.


So the #4 and #5 steepest streets in Seattle haven't existed in well over 45 years!

As i looked closer i found that the list is four decades out of date in another way! The Avenues on the east slope of Capitol Hill (between 23rd & 27th) which make up 7 of the blocks on this list have the directional  North.  But that's wrong; in reality they have the directional East.  The other three entries, (including the 2 non-existent ones) on the west slope of Capitol Hill, mention Eastlake Ave, Melrose Ave, Broadway Ave & Boylston Ave which also should have the directional East. They have had that designation for over 40 years since the directionals were re-organized in the late 1960s.  The directionals on the list are from BEFORE that re-organization.

This list is not the whole city and it's half a century out of date!

The city's webpage states the survey report is from 1969, but that is seems unlikely.  It appears to me that the data on this page (Steep Streets in Seattle) is taken from a 1950s survey report of Capitol Hill only, not of the whole city. When this web page was created sometime between 1999 and 2012 no one even GLANCED at the data to see if it made sense.

Invisible Routes

A friend thanked me today for showing him a new cycling route last week. He said it with a significant amount of surprise. He's a very experienced cyclist. We had ridden a pleasant route on a neighborhood street, bypassing a bad arterial with almost constant conflicts. At the time i had to take some shit for not riding on the really bad street we usually ride on. This is not the first time.

I am truly baffled by this.

There is finally some talk on the internet about driver privilege. It's about time! I feel like i've been a lone voice for a long time, and frankly not a very effective voice. I'm glad the discussion is spreading. It's time cyclists stopped blaming themselves.

It worries me how many cyclists both fall victim to this kind of thinking, and by repeating it, propagate it further. I know many cyclists, car-free, bike transportation people, who insist on riding on the most unpleasant roads... "because we can". I am very capable of riding in heavy car traffic, i've done it successfully for over 30 years. I know the law well and i know we have a right to do it. A legal right and a moral right.

I passionately believe, as i have for 40 years, that bikes are transportation not toys. I believe... i know that we are equal to (and often superior) to cars. These ideas are becoming more widespread, as they should.

But why are so many cyclists afraid to admit that bicycling is fun?!? Why do so many cyclists make such a strong effort to make their own ride unpleasant? It's like they think we have to suffer for it to be acceptable... just because people in cars are suffering. Maybe they think if they admit that riding is fun they will somehow lose the right to be part of the transportation system? That's an understandable unconscious fear i think we all struggle with. (There's a future blog post in that idea.)

But that concern is based in the cultural idea that we, as cyclists, are doing something inherently wrong and it seems many of us feel we have to pay for that by suffering as much as possible. What's so wrong with riding down a pleasant street instead of jumping into the middle of an angry polluted mob of death machines?

I'm not saying we shouldn't be on major streets, and i don't want to be mis-construed in any way that makes it seem like i'm trying to move bikes down the hierarchy below cars. Bicycles should be allowed on any street and streets through shopping districts should be made as (truly) bicycle friendly as possible. But really, as cyclists, we need to be a lot better at route finding. Enjoying the commute makes cycling more legitimate, not less.

I'm not talking about doubling the distance or anything. On occasion the more pleasant routes are a tad longer, usually they are the same distance -- and even when they are longer, a quarter of a mile here and there seems well worth it to me. (I like riding my bike!) There are a few cases where the nasty route is considerably shorter, but that's rare. And in many of those cases, considering all the factors, i would still advocate for the pleasant route.

I don't understand why cyclists absolutely freak out when a pleasant route is suggested over a nasty one. The resistance is huge. And it happens almost every time i suggest one. I automatically brace myself for it now. They often shut me down before i finish the sentence, like i'm being vulgar, or more likely, breaking a taboo.

They never come right out and say it, but it's clear that many cyclists think there is some kind of surrender involved in riding a quiet, pleasant route rather than a miserable route full of cars. As if it were a moral lapse, a spiritual sacrifice, an ideological flaw, a personal weakness or a political capitulation to commute by bike and actually enjoy it.

Perhaps they have a unresolved feeling transplanted from other modes that commuting, getting from one place to another, is supposed to be very unpleasant, so if they actually enjoy it, they are cheating, not doing it right; might as well just forget it and drive a car. And that's the experienced riders, most new or prospective cyclists, after they get over their surprise that there ARE other routes, react with concern to a suggestion of a residential route for fear that it might be longer or more hilly. I understand that fear, although i think it is misplaced in a couple of ways: it's often not longer and so what if it is!

Strangely i find that when pushed into the more pleasant route, most people prefer it, but they feel very guilty! Time and distance aside, there is just so much more benefit from riding the backstreets. It's better exercise, great experiences, educational and just fun. It is living well.

Sometimes in our car-head, motorist privileged culture people just forget that there is any landscape, any city scape, any neighborhood, any real estate that is not on major streets. Everything else becomes invisible. This is a serious mistake.

I'm not saying we should NEVER ride on arterials, and i'm not even saying that pleasant routes are as fast from A to B as the ugly ones (although the in the majority of the cases any time savings is far less than 'optimum' claims).  I am not suggesting we should ALWAYS ride pleasant routes but i am surprised at how many cyclists refuse to EVER ride pleasant routes.

So i'm not suffering. I'm not wishing i was in a car and i'm not wishing i was on that highway fighting with cars. I'm enjoying seeing, experiencing, learning about and enjoying my city, the people, the weather, the landscape and my ride through it. I absolutely love experiencing these streets, being a part of these neighborhoods. Being there. It's why i ride.

Schmidt Edelux

One of the frustrations of cycling is the constant replacing of batteries in the headlight.

There are two kinds of lights: SEE ME lights, and SEE AHEAD lights.

Until recently see me lights were cheap and great for getting the attention of other road users, but did nothing for lighting up the road itself.  See ahead lights that light up the road were very expensive and extremely battery hungry. 

But i've always wanted to see the road, to ride in the dark.  So i usually choose a see ahead light with a dynamo, an electrical generator, that converts some of the energy from the bicycle, from me that is, into power for the light.

I first started riding with a generator light back in the mid 1970s. Generators then were loud, created a great deal of drag, damaged the side of the tire, required a great deal of tweaking and the light went off at stop lights. But there was no battery required, i had nothing to throw in the landfill, there was nothing to replaced weekly (or daily!). My light was always there. And it was the brightest thing around, not only did it make me visible, but i could see where i was going. And i have to say i kind of liked the way it made my bike sound like a jet engine as i accelerated downhill.

In the early 1990s, when almost all of my night riding was in the city, with good street lighting, i gave up on generators and used blinky lights front and back, figuring all i needed was to be seen, not to light my own way. I had a few sets of rechargeable batteries which i changed every couple of weeks.

But then in the late 1990s generator technology made a big leap (thanks to a German law requiring them on all bicycles). I read about the amazing bottom bracket generators that contacted the bottom of the tire, not the side, were quiet and were much much, more efficient. And the lights store 5 minutes of power so they stay on at traffic lights! After a long conversation about lights and generators, Val Kleitz at Bikesmith managed to find an imported bottom bracket generator for me, with front and back lights. I was thrilled.  I rode with that generator set for years. It served me very well. I loved it.

Although it was pretty quiet there was a bit of hum . When someone would ride right next to me they would sometimes ask about the sound. I was sorry it wasn't louder, i loved to talk about the generator, although, sadly, i don't think i ever converted anyone. I never had to think about batteries, i always had my light and it was always ready to go.  I used no power from the wall, or from a factory, i never threw any chemicals into the landfill, and every time i rode with anyone else, i had the brightest light on the road! That halogen headlight really lit things up.

Last year, for my birthday, my parents got me a hub generator! This is a huge advance. It's completely silent and very powerful. It's extremely efficient, there is no noticeable drag at all -- it uses magnets passing each other rather than contact with the tire. And it looks really cool too.

I love it. It's got more than enough power for my halogen headlight, however headlight technology has advanced considerably. My headlight is not really that bright. It hasn't changed, but all the other lights have. Even many of the small, cheap see me lights are now brighter than my halogen. Lights have begun using super bright LEDs which use considerably less current than a halogen.

So at the top of my wish list is now the Schmidt Edelux.

(I'd probably get black, the red is a slightly different color than my burgundy bike, and sliver might stand out too much... but any of the three would work.)

This light is amazingly bright.

But more importantly, it is focused, wide and low, so not to blind other cyclists.

So i'm going to ask for a Schmidt Edelux from Peter White Cycles this year.

Jump the Paint!

Yesterday i rode through the intersection of Eastlake and Fuhrman. They've recently painted a green bike lane there to make this very dangerous intersection a little safer. (I witnessed a car hit a bike there once.)  I looked down at the road paint and was reminded of a particularly notable crossing of this intersection back several years ago.

I was heading to a late morning appointment near the University. I'd taken mostly back roads and trails down the hill, but now i was on the major artery.

I was focused; riding with motor traffic northbound on Eastlake Avenue, i knew i had to scramble.  I was very alert -- the south end of the University Bridge, just ahead, is a notoriously dangerous intersection. I looked down the block and saw that the light at Fuhrman Ave had just turned green; if i hurried i could cross the angled intersection with Harvard Ave, make the full block and pass through the traffic light safely right before it changed, leaving me with a car-free gap at the beginning of the bridge; which is exactly the timing you need to safely negotiate the worst sections of the bridge.

There is a bike lane along this block, it's a dangerous one and i frequently avoid it, nevertheless i was aiming for it. As i crossed the first intersection i saw three orange traffic cones placed close together entirely across the bike lane -- there were three more cones, widely spaced, blocking the right car lane. There was no indication of why this was.
I didn't have time to think about it; there was a car revving it's engine right over my left shoulder preventing me from swerving into the left traffic lane.

So i split the cones and went into the blocked off right travel lane. I had accelerated for that move and was moving pretty quickly, but i could see that there were no obstructions. There was no construction work or material in the lane.  I was familiar with this.  Frequently construction zones can offer cyclists a bit of protection from aggressive motorists, so i was pleased and a bit more comfortable alone in that empty lane. 

I glanced, as i often do, at the DON'T WALK signs ahead -- these signs are kind of a pre-yellow light, they help let you know when a light is getting ready to change. It's a very useful little trick when cycling in the city. By the time i was in the middle of the block, the DON'T WALK signs were flashing, time was getting short, but i felt i could still make it, so i sped up a little. There was still no evidence of why the lane was coned.

As i approached the green light at the end of the block, a worker jumped out into my lane and started waving his arms and yelling.  Only then did i notice that they had just painted the 18 inch wide stop line moments before and, understandably, he didn't want me running through the wet paint.  Road paint.  I didn't want me to run through it either.

Once on a ride to Port Townsend, along a bumpy chip seal road, i moved over to ride on the white fogline, a common trick to find a smoother ride. About 250 meters later i came around a corner and saw the paint truck ahead of me painting the fresh white line. My bike, and legs were covered with white road paint.  Road paint is permanent.  It didn't come off my bike until i had it sandblasted for painting, over a year later.

Now i had a problem. I was going to make the green light, and i was protected in that coned off lane.  There was a worker in front of me, and wet paint across the road.  I was going pretty fast, probably too fast to stop.  There are several things i could have done at that point. It's even remotely possible that grabbing a big handful of brake could have skidded me up to the line safely. 

I only had a tiny fraction of a second to make a decision and i made one. Generally my traffic instincts are good, but i'm not going to defend my decision this time. I went for it. I shifted and accelerated hard.  I needed speed for what i was going to do.  The worker yelled at me again, not nicely at all.

I got to the freshly painted line at speed and did a bunny hop, just picked the bike up with my feet and sailed through the air. I can't always pull that off, but with the advantage of speed, i flew though the air quite a long way.  I landed it beautifully, softly on both tires at the same time. It felt like a long leap, but i wasn't sure i had pulled it off.

As i sped across the intersection towards the bridge i heard the same worker shout, "Hey guy, that was really good!", and laugh.

There was no wet paint on my tires. I cleared the line!

It's not a recession!

I accidentally listened to a right wing talk show the other day.

I didn't mean to, i just wasn't in a position to turn it off. I realize the terrible problems that selective media creates, but like everyone else, I still engage in it. We can learn a lot from people we disagree with. We can even learn a lot from people who are wrong. It's important to hear those things. But it's not easy and it's not comfortable. I usually change the station.

The guest on this show was David Stockman, Ronald Reagan's budget director. He is the person most responsible for Reagennomics. The world we live in today is his doing. He INVENTED this economy. Believe me, I didn't want to hear what he had to say. I'm very angry at him and the Reagen clan. I've heard the right winger arguments and they don't make any sense. The host and panel on this radio show however clearly felt they were in the presence of royalty. They were in awe and each and every one of them, especially the host, took time during introductions to express their deep respect and admiration for him.

After a few minutes of worshiping him, they started asking questions about the budget crisis. Almost immediately he said:

"It's very simple, we must cut the defense budget by 26%, preferably more. We must raise taxes on the rich and even the middle class. We must exclude the wealthy from social security. We have no choice. We've gone way too far."

The right wing host, Dianne Rheam, actually cut his mike and said that he "had to leave". The guests were irate. But I thought it was interesting that the guy who invented this hyper capitalist world says we've gone to far. That percolated in my head for a while.

A couple of days ago I read a quote from Warren Buffet, another annoying republican who I normally ignore. He said, "The debt ceiling debate is a red herring. Our current debt is high, but after WWII it was 152% of GDP. This is not that bad."

I've been trying to ignore the media's mindless babbling about the debt ceiling debate. They are flogging a non issue just to further the Republicans selfish agenda. There will almost certainly be a deal, right at the deadline, the only question is how much blood the Republicans can steal from the American people in that deal. If there is NOT a deal, the Republican Party will never recover. They will never win another election if they shut down the government or if they cause a default. Because despite the constant screaming from the far right about how bad government is, most Americans actually like the government. Just ask Newt Gingrich who's career was ended when he shut down the government.

Yesterday I was stuck in a car for three hours and my mind was wandering when it hit me. This is not a recession. This is a POST WAR economy. It's the classic situation, exactly like every other post war period in US history, in European and Chinese history and in the Roman Empire.

Wars cost money. Lots of it. They are the most expensive thing we can buy. And it's awfully hard to time them so that you have money saved up. So you borrow money for your war, and then you pay it back.

Several years ago as part of my job I was trying to track down inflation rates. I found data from Professor Robert C. Sahr at Oregon State University who had calculated the value of the US dollar annually all the way back to 1665. So I grabbed that data and created a graph.

It's very hard to get any usable information, visually, from this graph, because there are two major phenomena that dominate the graph: the relative stability over a long period of time and the massive inflation since WWII.

So to learn anything useful, we have to zoom in.

Now what becomes obvious is that there are periodic spikes, big jumps in inflation, where the dollar's value declined, but fairly quickly returned to a norm. It's fascinating that, ignoring those spikes, the dollar remained at the essentially the same value for 300 years.

Now with what I know about history, i instantly found the timing of these spikes very interesting. So let's label the years.

Yes. Each spike is a war.

We inflated the currency as a way to borrow money, to pay for the terribly expensive wars, and then we paid it back. It's a normal pattern. The Roman Emperors did the same thing. Since Rome was a military dictatorship, each time a general would lead a coup and become emperor, it would cost a lot of money. So they would collect all of the silver coins, melt them down, and add some tin, and make MORE coins than they started with. They inflated the number of coins but sold them for the same amount. They raised more money.

We just bought a four trillion dollar war, we have to pay for it. It's one of the most expensive things we will ever buy. It's like buying a house, you take out a mortgage because it's one of the most expensive things you will ever buy, then you have to change your budgeting for a period of time because you are paying off the house.

We are paying off our decade long $4,000,000,000,000 war. We may not want to, some of us didn't want the war in the first place, i'm not sure it accomplished anything, but we bought it, we took out loans to pay for it and now we have to pay it back.

Some political opportunists on the right are pretending that the reason we are in debt is because of taking care of the American people, but that is just a lie to try to enrich themselves. If government gets smaller, the wealthy can fill the gaps for themselves, but the other 85% of Americans suffer for the luxury of the wealthy.

We are in a post war economy, we've got a big mortgage, but we still have to buy food. To suggest that the problem is social programs is like buying a house, taking out a half a million dollar loan and then looking at your bottom line, seeing that you are in debt and blaming the cat food.

Stairway

How can Stairway to Heaven be the best song ever when it isn't even the THIRD best song on it's own album?


Seriously, The Runes Album has at least 3 songs that are clearly better:

Rock & Roll
Bron-Y-R Stomp
and especially
Misty Mountain Hop

After the rain.

It was a long day and i was tired. I was ready to be home.

All day i looked out the window at the heavy rain pounding down while i was inside working. It rains in Seattle. I love the rain. Lots of people have been complaining about it lately, trying to find a way to see it as unusual, or wrong. It's not wrong. I watched the rain out the window all day as i worked. It was wonderful.

When it finally came time to leave, i pulled out my rain legs (the best rain pants i've every used) and put them on over my wool knickers.

About two blocks after i rolled out the door, the rain stopped and the sky cleared. While rain is wonderful, there can be little that is more perfect than an evening ride right after the rain stops. The air is so clear and clean and everything seems to be more alive than usual. As i pedaled north, Seattle's hills hid the mountains on the horizon, but the clouds turned deep pink and purple.

A glorious sunset after the rain. Rides like this are good for the soul.

The Air Horn

I have this air horn for my bicycle. It was given to me -- it was kind of a joke, kind of an award. I don't think it was a comment on how i ride -- I hope not.

The horn mounts on the handlebars. It's connected to a bottle that fits into a water bottle cage, you pump air into it with a bike pump, pump to a really high pressure. It's loud. It's REALLY loud. I don't like to be close to it.

About a week ago i mounted it on the newly painted bike. Mounting it was also kind of a joke -- i was going to be riding with the folks who gave it to me. They laughed when they saw it. I honked it a few times for fun, in industrial areas away from homes or people. The cyclists with me didn't want to be in front of me when i honked it.

I rode with it for a week. I never once used it for it's intended purpose. But i thought about it a lot. I didn't actually ever think about using it, but i thought about the horn.

There are lots of minor conflicts daily with motorists who are distracted, aggressive or clueless. But all of those, even the frustrating ones, i handle without the need for sounding like an 18 wheeler. Sometimes i get annoyed, mostly i just stay alert and take action. I rarely, if ever, get into a verbal conflict.

So riding along i started thinking about how this thing might be used. There are really only two ways: prophylactic or punitive.

It could be used as a prophylactic measure -- to prevent something. If something was about to happen i might use it to try to prevent a conflict. A loud burst on the horn might, perhaps, alert a driver who was doing something crazy, like the Taxi cab last week that was baring down on me on a one lane residential street. But in those situations i'm more concerned with taking evasive action, my finger does not naturally go looking for the horn button while i'm getting out of the way.

Or it could be used as a punitive measure -- in anger, after someone threatened me and the danger had passed. Punishment. The other night a Cadillac switched to my side of the street flipped their bright lights and drove straight at me. I could've blasted the horn as i squeezed by them. But my being a jerk because they were a jerk would not make it better. That's not who i want to be.

Today a car ran a stop sign in front of me, didn't slow down, didn't even pretend to stop. THIS. This was the only situation where it might make sense to use the horn. But i didn't. I yelled, but my natural reaction was to take evasive action and keep both hands on the bars.

It's a fun thing but there really is no good time to use it. I removed it from the bike today. If i'm ever in a parade maybe i'll put it back on.

riding in the rain.

I didn't have bad clothes. So it wasn't bad weather.

It rained very hard today. I love it so much, i love watching it, i love hearing it. Really the sound of rain is the most wonderful sound in the world, it's comforting, cozy, safe.

My wool knickers, wool shirt and sweater, wool socks, rainlegs and custom bike wizard jacket kept me warm and dry enough on the ride south in the morning. The ride north in the evening was quite the same.

The feeling of the rain on my face makes me happy, it feels so good, so real! It's weather that reaches out and touches you. I revel in it.

First day of April, fifteen wonderful, wet miles.

Bicycle Advocacy Made Simple

I've been told i should write a book about Bicycling and Bicycle Advocacy and i may just do that. I have a lot to say. But the more i think about it all, the simpler it becomes. In fact, i find the same basic kernel at the heart of each and every argument about minutia.

A few years ago on a very long ride i realized that i could put everything that is important for cycling on a T-shirt. It would include the distilled message that fully explains what Cyclists need to know and follow, as well as what Motorists need to know and follow.

On the back, for Motorists it would say:
ADULTS CAN WAIT THEIR TURN. And on the front, for Cyclists, it would say... exactly the same thing.

How Steep is Finn Hill?

In the bike shop the other day, my friend Ryan and i were chatting about Finn Hill just north of Kirkland along Juanita Dr NE. (For 15 years i called it Juanita Hill thinking for some weird reason that Finn Hill was further east.)

Finn Hill, is a feature on many bike routes. It is one of the only ways to connect downtown Bellevue to the Burke Gillman trail north of the lake on an around-Lake-Washington ride. It's a fairly serious climb on what can usually be a relatively flat ride. I had climbed it south to north on an around-the-lake half century ride a few days before.

Some people curse it, others add it to their ride for the challenge. For me, i ride it to get from here to there. Holmes Point Dr, which drops down to the lake from the south part of the climb and then back up to the summit is one of the steepest streets in the region and is often used by cyclists for training.



I almost always ride it from south to north. Ryan and i started discussing the attributes of the two different directions. I usually am known for having a pretty good ability to estimate distance and climb. Ryan said that he found the southbound climb to be frustrating because it was steeper. I insisted that the northbound climb was steeper. I've ridden that hill dozens of times over a couple of decades and it's always been clear to me that the northbound climb was steeper.

So when i got home i fired up the Topo(tm) software, as i often do after riding.

Here's what i learned:

From the south it's about 3.5 miles to the top, 3% average grade, with a brief max at 8% grade.



and from the north it's about 1.5 miles to the top, 5% average grade, also with a brief max grade at about 8%.


Ryan was right. I was wrong,

I don't know why i always felt like the south way was shorter and steeper. I usually ride from the south, maybe that descent just seemed very long. The last couple of times i have climbed it at sunset and descended in the rain in the dark, which was pretty hairy.

Weather Whiners

It rains here. It rains from November to July. It's Normal, it's Natural, it's Nice.

I know that people who move here love to play the game of complaining about the weather. It's childish and appalling, but lots of small minded people do it, and they even go out of their way to try to outdo each other, to be MORE pathetic and negative than the other guy. 'I bet I can be more morose than YOU about something that's not that bad and impossible to change!'

There is nothing more pathetic than someone complaining about the rain in Seattle. Are you just trying to PROVE how shallow you are? I try to be understanding, i try hard to ignore the stupidity and negativity, but i actually stiffed a waiter last night because he wouldn't stop whining about the weather! "I can't get out of bed." What a wanker.

GET OVER IT.

We often have cool or wet weather and clouds. It's lovely. We live here. We're lucky it's not Los Angeles.

The weather does NOT make you depressed. Despite how much you like the gloomy image of you that pretend fact presents, it is just an excuse. Yeah, i know it's the popular thing to say, and wow, you've found a doctor who told you so. They're wrong and you got ripped off. It's an excuse. If anything, you are depressed because you decide to put lots of energy into hating the weather, spend lots of time on it, or maybe you refuse to go outside unless it feels like a desert, and so you rot indoors, but probably you just like the excuse.

I have an idea: find something to hate that you CAN change! The weather is EASY to accept and even enjoy.

If the kid inside of you can't enjoy the weather, and the adult you are supposed to be can't accept it, then please move back to LA; otherwise just SHUT UP!

How Many Monkeys

Every week at the Thursday Night Volunteer Repair Parties at Bike Works, we put down the tools for a few minutes to introduce ourselves and chat a little. There is always a question for each person to answer to help get to know people, to get us talking. Usually it's a bicycling question, but not always. Sometimes it's very serious, other times funny, often it's about a favorite food or favorite ride.

A couple of weeks ago a volunteer named John asked the group this question:
How many monkeys do you think there are in the world?

It was a fun question.

There were guesses as high as 3 billion and as low as 100,000. Most people guessed between 5 and 80 million. I guessed "under one million". But here's the thing: John doesn't know the real answer, he just uses it as an ice breaker.

 Well, this data geek couldn't let that THAT go... so when i got home i started searching and creating a data model. I surveyed the primate fact sheets at animal info.org and the Univ of Wisc Primate Info Net. I included some mathematically modeled estimates since some species don't have detailed population numbers on the factsheets, but the numbers seem pretty solid.

There are three genii of primates: Lemurs, Monkeys (distinguished by having a tail) and Apes (distinguished by not having a tail). I have removed one of the species of ape from the totals, and have listed it as separate category: Homo sapiens.

There are 67 species of monkey. I found primate fact sheets on 24 of those species (18 of which are endangered).  There are currently 826,166 individuals among those 24 species. Mathematically modeling (using the median), for the species missing fact sheets, gives an estimated total of about 950,000 monkeys in the world.

There are 15 species of ape (excluding humans). I found primate fact sheets on 10 of those species (9 of which are endangered). There are currently 691,525 individuals among those 10 species. Mathematically modeling (using the median), for the species missing fact sheets, gives an estimated total of about 810,000 apes in the world.

There are 24 species of lemur. I found primate fact sheets on 4 of those species (almost all of the 24 are critically endangered). Among those 4 species there are currently 51,180 individuals. Mathematically modeling (using the median) for the species missing fact sheets gives an estimated total of about 100,000 lemurs in the world.

There are roughly 7,100,000,000 humans in the world.

So i found that there are several answers to John's question. How Many monkeys are there in the world?

• 950,000 - if we use only the genus Monkey.
  
• 1,750,000 - using the standard colloquial definition, (monkeys and non-human apes).
  
• including Lemurs, there are just under 2 million non-human primates in the world.
  

It's very disturbing to me that on this planet for every monkey there are about 3,800 human beings!!!

	distinction	species w #	species	actual count	est total (using median)
monkeys	have tail	24	67	826,166	950,000
apes	no tail	10	14	691,525	810,000
total		34	81	1,517,691	1,760,000
lemurs	3rd family	4	24	51,180	100,000
humans	apes			7,100,000,000	7,100,000,000

tidal cycles - waves around the world

I made these pretty charts and learned something about the tides from them. I really like them, they seem like art to me, and i didn't really know what to do with them, so i figured i'd post them here.

This started initially with an observation that the summer highest tides seemed to be always right around lunchtime, while the winter highest tides were around midnight.

Here in Seattle we have a 16 foot daily tidal range -- large enough to be very noticeable. We are on a fjord called The Salish Sea or Puget Sound; it is teaming with life: at low tide it is fascinating to wander the intertidal zone and see the crabs, mollusks, fish, plants and even octopi that live at the edge of the underwater world. A biologist friend and i often gave guided tide tours to travelers at the lowest tides, so i was alert to what time these tides happen.

The extremes happen during the 2 or 3 full or new moons closest to the solstice. That means that once in May, once in June and once in July. And also once in November, once in December and once in January.

The lowest and highest tides happen on the same day! It's pretty amazing to walk a couple hundred meters from 'shore' on the sand and rocks, knowing that in just 6 hours the water will be three times my height deep where i am! The entire fjord fills up really fast. That's a lot of water.

I tend to think of the highest high tides being in the winter and the lowest low tides being in the summer, but that may have more to do with what i see in daylight. And THAT gets me to the question i had...

Tides vary significantly from tide height to tide height and from day to day, month to month. A detailed tide table, made using very complex math, is required to predict a tide for any day.

There are four tides a day, a high high and a lower high, a low low and a higher low, although because the cycle is not exactly timed to 24 hours (i think it's 28 hours) every few days one tide is missed. The tide tables are sine waves, showing the tide rising a falling.

Every year when we would plan our low tide walks, we would consult the tide tables to find out at what time the lowest tides each month would be. And after about 10 years i noticed that those super low tides in May, June & July were always right around mid-day.

So i wondered, is that a rule of the system? Is it just a coincidence of Seattle's location (47 degrees latitude), of era (1990s & 2000s), or is there something that governed that.

Tides are caused by a gravity interplay of the three body system of the sun, the moon and the earth. They effect our bodies and the rocks and mountains, but in such tiny amounts that it is not noticeable. However water is both fluid and heavy and there's a lot of it. The moon's pull, the sun's pull and the force of the earth swinging around the sun sloshes the oceans around, keeping big bumps of water underneath the moon and the sun, and opposite the sun (from the swing).

Tide is also effected by latitude (because the earth is tilted, tides are smaller near the equator) and by the depth and shape of various inlets.

I have several good tide prediction websites that i regularly use, notablyNOAA and the WWW Tide Predictor at the University of South Carolina. I

Initially i got data from both places, but i wanted to be consistent and i really like the US National Oceanic an Atmospheric Administration, so i used only data from there. I picked 28 sites around the world. I tried to get a good spread, but i can't say this is random in any way; i leaned towards places i had visited or knew of and i only picked 28 data points.

I used the tides data for two years, from both 2010 and 2011 superimposed on each other to get  fuller and more consistent data.  That's a couple thousand tides (about 4 per day 730 days) for each site!   I graphed only the most extreme tides, and color coded them according to season.

The graphs helped me to answer my question.  This phenomenon is pretty much world wide, it's not unique to Seattle.  The highest highs in the winter and summer are about 12 hours apart, and the lowest lows the same.  Some places it's not noon and midnight, but the pattern is the same. (Studying the physics of tidal motion further i was able to determine those super low tides in the summer will in fact always be around mid-day, and the super-highs in the winter around mid-day.)

I was finished with the graphs, but i found that the images were so beautiful i wanted to keep them.

Here they are, arranged from south to north, regardless of longitude. I hid the spring and fall and only plotted the summer (pink) and winter (blue) tides. You'll notice a solid line through each graph, that's the mean low tide line, or zero. The scale changes, often enormously, from graph to graph. I am not trying to compare the amplitude of tides from place to place, only the patterns, so i chose a different  scale for each graph so they are all comparable in size.

Davis, Antarctica

Ushuaia, Argentina

Lady Barron Harbour, Tasmania, Australia

Omaio Bay, Motunui Island, New Zealand

Sydney, Australia

Durban, South Africa

Fortaleza, Brazil

Port Royal, Isla Roatan, Honduras

Acapulco, Guerrero, Mexico

Hilo Bay, Hilo, Hawaii

Isigaki, Okinawa

Key West, Florida

Bay St. Louis, Mississippi

Charlston, South Carolina

Inner Harbor, Long Beach, California

Coney Island, New York, New York

Tokati, Hokkaido, Japan

Casco Bay, Portland, Maine

Skipanon River, Warrenton, Oregon

St. Johns, Newfoundland, Canada

Seattle, Washington

Dover, England

Llandudno, Gwynedd, Wales

West-Terschelling, Netherlands

Zehnerloch, Germany

Wick, Scotland

Leaf Bay, Ungava, Bay, Quebec

Knik Arm, Cook Inlet, Anchorage, Alaska

Perfectionism and the "Good Enough" gauge

The problem with perfectionism is NOT the inability to be satisfied -- although that can be frustrating.

The problem with perfectionism is NOT the unwillingness to start things because you could never do it well enough -- although that's terribly deblitating.

The problem with perfectionism is NOT the cutting yourself off from everyone and everything that is not perfect, since nothing is -- although that is so destructive.

No, the problem with perfectionism is not having the ability to judge good enough.

We all have an inbuilt gauge of what is good enough. Call it the sufficient gland, or the appropriate gauge, the satisfactory meter, or the acceptable index or whatever. Is 75% good enough, 65%? 90%, 10%?

Many people have a fairly well calibrated acceptable index. The rest of us envy them. Some peoples' gauges, are clearly set far too low, and we are all annoyed with those people. And other peoples' are set annoyingly high.

But with perfectionists, the gauge is pegged at the top, full-on all the time. There is no variation, it never reads anything different so it is USELESS, leaving that person with NO GAUGE of 'good enough' AT ALL.

You either stupidly stare at the gauge, and everything will always fall below the topped out meter, so nothing is ever good enough, or, with awareness of the malfunction, you ignore the gauge and have to GUESS what is satisfactory with no guide or ruler at all. It makes it really, really, REALLY hard to judge anything in any part of your day, in any part of your life.

How many flaws can i allow in someone i'm dating? Is alcoholism too much? My 'good enough' gauge is pegged so i'm in the dark. When can i stop working so people will think i've done enough. How many times do i need to re-edit that piece about perfectionism that i wrote before i can show it to someone. And on and on.

The Ultimate Cycling Food

I was riding with a great bunch of tree-huggers on Boxing Day.

Most of the time i'm middle of the pack, but this bunch was fast, i was the second slowest; and midway through our 64 hilly miles the slowest guy got dropped. It was fast, but it was fun. Right after we dropped the guy from Kansas (Vashon is not flat!), we came to the highway and turned left. Jon, who had never been on Vashon Island before asked which way the food was. He sighed when Kent said that it was the other way. I needed food too, but i didn't say anything. I usually eat almonds or granola bars on the bike, but my pockets were empty.

It took a little extra effort, but i stayed with the group on the loop south and back around on West Side Highway. When we turned back north, Brad turned off to catch the ferry from the south point of the island. I was having a really great time but eventually it happened: i bonked. And it was a serious dropping-off-the-cliff bonk; one minute i was powering up the hill with these randonneurs and 4 minutes later i could barely the turn the cranks a flat half mile to the highway.

They waited for me. On the last hill up into town Mark rode up next to me, put his hand on the small of my back and just pushed me up the hill. I really don't know how i would've made it otherwise. I was extremely thankful, but i could only grunt one word: "Milkshake".

At the top of the hill Jon and Kent were standing there pointing to a sign on a quaint little local burger bar. The sign said: "Come in and eat or we'll both starve!" Even forgetting the economy for a moment i found that to be very deep. It was advice that none of us could resist.


In addition to a garden burger and fries, i got my milkshake. It made me happy, but more importantly, it brought me back.

Once we were at the table stuffing our faces i explained why i believe Milkshakes are the ultimate cycling food.

First of all it's got fat. Fat is the oak log of energy. It burns slow and it burns long. This might not be so great if you're sitting at a desk, in a car or on the couch, but it's exactly what you want on the bike. It stays with you. For most people a milkshake will continue to fuel you for about 35 miles. For me it's about 20, but i'm weird.

Second, it's got sugar. Simple sucrose. This is the kindling, the fast burning twigs and paper of energy. It burns very quickly; you feel it almost instantly. (It goes away very fast too!) So if you're starting to drag, it gives you power to sprint down the road, if you're bonking, like i was, it restores you.

Third it's got lactose which is a complex sugar, about half the way to a carbohydrate. It's a medium burner, the dry pine log of energy, and will last longer than the sucrose.

And as the American Dairy council never misses a chance of telling us, milk has protein. Not only does that help restore overused muscles, but it helps to create the enzymes that regulate how quickly the energy, the glucose, is fed in to your bloodstream over time. It regulates your fuel flow.

Of course a milkshake also has fluids which you always need on the bike, no one ever drinks enough. And it's easy and quick to consume, i've even carried them in my bottle cage!

All of that is really important, but there are two other very important reasons why milkshakes are the ultimate bicycling food. They taste good. This sounds basic, but it's actually really key. I don't know how many times i've seen folks, even some who were actually bonking, holding on to a Power Bar, a gel, or some other gross non-food. But they weren't eating it, they were staring at it, and that doesn't fuel your body. So tasting good is great because you eat it: you actually consume it, probably quickly; and you finish it.

And lastly, in the US at least, you can find a milkshake almost anywhere. Every town, no matter how small, is going to have a restaurant, burger bar or establishment of some sort where you can get a milkshake, often a good one. Even between towns on the lonely roads there is often a possibility. This might be the most important feature. Showing up is 80%. If it's not there, it can't fuel you. Milkshakes are great fuel, they are yummy and they show up.

The rest of the day i rode hard. I had half the milkshake at the burger bar and the other half went in my bottle cage for me to enjoy on the ferry. We rode until the shadows were long. It was a good day.

Novara Rainy Pass Bike Gloves - Men's

I have had FIVE pairs of these gloves going back to when they first appeared at REI in the mid 1990s. I have found them to be very useful and very dependable; although the design changes over the years have often been a step backwards.

I ride in all weather, commuting daily with frequent, all day recreational rides, totaling 3,000-4,000 miles a year. I live in Seattle where winter is in the upper 30s to upper 40s and frequently wet (although less so these last few years).

I swear by these gloves. They have generally lasted for about 3 years of heavy daily use. They are great in the 38 to 48 degree range -- our normal winter weather. Above that they are too warm and below that my fingers start to be a little cold (i often carry liners that i wear under them on the rare occasion that a Seattle night is too cold for them). They are smooth and comfortable inside and allow plenty of dexterity. They are as breathable as is possible in a warm glove and they are light and pack easily in a truck bag or backpack.

They are GREAT in the Seattle rain. They get wet but keep my hands warm, just as they should. Perfect. If i stop and take them off for a long time when they are wet, i sit on them to warm them back up (or even microwave them for 4 or 5 seconds) and they keep me warm and happy. At work in the winter i often place them on my computer monitor so they are dry when i leave.

I have recommended them to many people over the years.

There ARE some concerning issues.

The palm padding on the new models is far too thin,
the newer models are not as warm
some years the inner seams have had too much extra fabric.
the most recent pair i bought wore holes in them very quickly.

The first pair i had, in the early 1990s was when they were gray. I completely wore out that first pair; i wore them for years, until they were falling apart. I bought second pair - still gray. Unfortunately within just a few months i lost one of the gloves. So i bought a third pair, also gray, and i wore them a couple of years until they were close to wearing out with a few holes and seems starting to split open; i threw them in the closet in the spring.

The next year i bought another pair but the inner seams were badly trimmed. The thick excess fabric inside made it hard to shift and eliminated all dexterity aside from just being uncomfortable. I was very disappointed. I returned that pair and bought a different brand glove.

Several years later i noticed a new redesigned model, now black, but clearly the same glove. So I bought a fourth pair and wore it for a couple of years. When started to get a few holes i decided to buy another pair, but they had the same inner seam problem as the third pair i had so i didn't buy them. I continued to use the fourth pair for yet another year.

In 2008 i found the newest model (black) had solved the seam problem and were smooth on the inside again allowing dexterity. So i bought a fifth pair! Early in the winter of 2009-2010 i lost one of that pair, and was lucky enough that the one i had left was a mate to the lost glove from the second pair, which i still had in the bottom of a box!

So this winter i have been wearing a mixed pair, a 1999 gray model on the left and a 2008 black model on the right. They work well, and riding with the different generations side by side has allowed me to really compare the two.



The older model from 1999 is thicker and much warmer than the 2008 glove. The new one is not warm enough. The newer one has much less palm padding, it feels like riding without padding, but the glove from 1999 is well padded, comfortable, and much more like a cycling glove! The older one seems more durable, than the new one, even though it's had more abuse. The older one fits somewhat more snuggly increasing my dexterity (i can operate my cyclometer or mobile phone with the old glove, but not with the new one). The new one has finger tip reinforcement which is VERY useful as that is the primary failure point on the old model. The older glove is splitting at the seams. The newer one has reinforced seems, is a nicer, more neoprene like fabric, but has torn easily.

I'm hopeful that next year's model is black with the reinforced fingertips, and smooth inside seems, but is thicker, snugger and with more palm padding like the older model.

ZZQ

Two antenna cables,
power wire,
mounting bracket,
knobs & dials,
in a nifty blue case!

A little singsong jingle that i will never forget. Sung to the tune of the then popular Big Mac commercial, it was a wonderful in-house produced spot for an FM converter (to allow AM radios to receive FM broadcasts) on the legendary ZZQ in the early 1970s.

WZZQ 102.9 FM in Jackson Mississippi in the 1970s was at the vanguard of the movement towards Album Oriented Rock radio -- they basically invented the format.

I feel extremely lucky that i got to experience ZZQ. I eventually spent some time working in radio in Jackson, and a lot more time as a fanatical follower of Jackson radio, so i sometimes receive email asking about that time.  A recent email allowed me to write it all down: "When did JDX FM become ZZQ? What made that happen? Did all the staff go with the change?"

While this question is about something that happened in 1972, the way it is phrased, as a concern about complete change is really because of 1981.  The callsign change was made in about 1972. It was simply an administrative licensing addendum. There was no format change, no ownership change and no staff change when the callsign changed. They applied to the FCC and got a different name.  It is possible to request a specific callsign when applying for a broadcast license, and many stations do.  I've always wondered if the wonderful calls "WZZQ" were randomly assigned, or if they were specifically requested.   In any case, it was the name of one of the truly great rock radio stations of all time.

It's just a name. Nothing more.However it certainly was a part of the evolution of the station into what i eventually knew in high school. Knowing what i know now about how radio works, i'd guess that once it became clear that the incipient AOR format on the FM side was a ratings success, they wanted to create a unique identity and distance themselves from the news & top 40 format on the AM side. Ownership didn't change, they were still sister stations, still had the same sales staff and still were in the same building on Beasley Road at Watkins Drive.

My understanding of that evolution starts in the 1940s when Lamar Life Insurance, which owned WJDX-AM was competing against their arch enemy Standard Life who owned WSLI-AM. Top 40 WSLI was the original ratings leader.

Actually there are three major Jackson stations that we have to look at in this history. WJDX 1300 AM went on the air in 1927; JDX=Jackson distance (DX is radio jargon for long distance). WSLI 930 AM joined them in 1939; SLI = Standard Life Insurance. WRBC 620 AM came along in 1948 and had several periods at #1 in the ratings when my father was growing up; RBC=Rebel Broadcasting Company.

I'm not sure why but WRBC and WJDX swapped frequencies (and transmitters) in 1952. The 620 kHz channel had better propagation, more strength and a better signal and WJDX quickly took over as the top station, and, in fact, the premier station in the entire state. WRBC never recovered their competitive edge and when i was growing up they were news and sports and never in the top 10.

In the early 1940s when FM licenses became available, both competing life insurance companies grabbed a license and put an FM station on the air, not with any belief that it would be bigger than AM radio, and not even with any real conviction, but just to say they had it, for bragging rights and to keep up with the other guy.

That's the origin moment when ZZQ started. While there was a license, a signal and even music transmitted, it was all just for show.  No listeners had FM receivers in the 40s, 50s & 60s and ratings books were not produced on FM.  No one was paying attention, not the station owners, not the program directors, not the advertisers and not the public.

Initially, nationwide, FM stations were added by AM stations and given the same calls. Mind you Lamar Life and Standard Life probably WANTED the same calls as their AM side, for bragging rights, but initially at least, that was all the FCC would issue. WSLI-FM was on 97.3 and WJDX-FM was, of course, on 102.9 mHz.

When TV licenses became available, a decade later, the competition between the AM stations was still going strong and they did the same as before, each got a license, just for show. Standard Life first, with WSLI TV-12 (ABC), in 1953 and, less than a year later, WLBT TV-3 (NBC) owned by Lamar Life and associated with WJDX AM. LBT= Lamar Broadcasting Television. FM radio was still a non-existent business. They both got a TV license and started broadcasting not really because either side thought it would turn into something bigger than AM radio, but because they had to have the newest thing, the coolest thing, to keep up with the other guy.  For decades WJTV-WSLI AM & FM were a single operating unit and WLBT-WJDX AM & FM were a unit.

In addition the local newspapers (The Clarion-Ledger and Jackson Daily News) got a UHF TV license, WJTV TV-25 (CBS) JTV = Jackson TV.  Television took 10 years or so to take off, but of course it did. WLBT did well and the others struggled. At some point in the mid sixties WSLI-12 shut down and was sold to the newspapers which started broadcasting WJTV-12 (CBS). In 1970 they were joined by WAPT-16 (ABC) owned by, you guessed it a life insurance company, American Public Life Insurance. APT=American Public Television.

At some point WJDX/WZZQ was sold. Lamar Life owned it in 1972, when the ZZQ callsign change happened, but they did not own it at the end in 1981. I'm not sure when that sale happened, and in fact there may have been more than one. If i'm not mistaken it was Kirby Confer who owned them in 1981. Lamar Life held on to WLBT TV for a while after that, but in the early 80s they were forced by the Feds to sell the station for blatant and over the top racism on the local TV news.

Back on the radio, WSLI-FM changed calls in the late 1960s. Although that station didn't have much success, it may have been another factor in the decision over at Lamar Life to change the calls on JDX-FM.  (When i was in high school i knew what station the former WSLI-FM was, but i don't remember now. It wasn't very big. The FCC database says it was WYYN but i only barely remember that station and i think that was yet another callsign change..)

Over at WJDX-FM the format was 'beautiful music'. And no one listened. That was typical across the country on the FM band. Most of the stations played classical music to appeal to the few wealthy audiophiles who might buy the exotic equipment. That went on for close to 30 years!

No one listened because even into the late sixties and early seventies, people didn't have FM tuners.  There was a vicious circle:  no station wanted to invest in full fledged, full time radio programming until people bought the receivers. And no one wanted to buy a receiver until there was something to listen to. That's why WZZQ, and WBCN Boston (which, sadly, went off the air just last week!), and KFOG in SF and WCCC in Chicago and KJET in Seattle and other great pioneer FM rock stations that did make a go at the big time sold those generic FM converters that let you listen to FM on an AM radio!

Really the only places that had FM receivers in Jackson were the big department stores which tuned to 102.9 for background music. Ironically that frequency continued to carry the background music for those stores well into the 1990s!  This is because the channels were designated by the FCC back in 1932.  The bandwidth allotted for an FM signal was 1,000 kH with 1,000 kH padding; but by the 1970s the technology had developed so that a high quality FM stereo signal only required a a fraction of the channel, leaving lots of unused frequency space.  Many FM stations, including ZZQ, would piggyback additional programming on a sub-carrier of their signal, to generate a extra income.

A sub-carrier is just a radio signal that normal radios ignore but if you have a special radio, it will decode that signal.  One of the main things that was carried on the sub-carrier was Muzak™ Inc.'s programming tracks!!! They were embedded in ZZQ's signal! I was, and continue to be very amused at the idea of Muzak™ being delivered under the same signal as Hendrix, Rundgren and the Who! I doubt that elevator music is still delivered that way.   But that's not all, before the the internet provided an easier method, the stock market ticker direct to stockbrokers and stolen credit card number blacklists to stores were distributed on sub-carriers of major FM stations and there were various contracted private channel text transmissions. I don't how much of that ZZQ did, but as one of the most powerful stations in the state, it stands to reason that there were lots of sub-carrier channels on their signal.

There continue to be many sub-carrier services: pagers use that method, reading services for the blind go out on a sub-carrier and even sometimes the programming of the AM side is sent across town via a sub-carrier to avoid having a wire run to a remote transmitter! In some countries they send text the name of the song, weather and traffic forecasts to display on your radio.  All over the US there is a GPS correction signal which goes out on an FM sub-carrier and helps GPS receivers with elevation among other things.  You'll notice your GPS receiver is more accurate close to a major FM station. 

But i've gotten ahead of myself.  Back in the 1960s, AM radio was king.  Because no one listened to FM, no one had receivers.  Because no one had receivers, Arbitron didn't do books (ratings) on FM stations.  Because there were no Arbitron books, there were no commercials.  Because there was no income from commercials the owners really didn't pay any attention to the FM side of the hall. This was the case across the country, but eventually out in the little building on Watkins & Beasley in Jackson Miss, the AM program director started letting the hippie kids working as janitors do air shifts on the FM side. Those kids started playing some interesting things. They played what they liked, they played the underground music of the era. And this was 1967, we know what the MAINSTREAM music was like then!  And after a year or two of that people started to notice, just a little, started to notice.


So in 1968, a format change was made. WJDX-FM became officially 'underground' rather than 'beautiful music'. One story says that Bob McRaney, the AM Program Director, was inspired by a station he heard in Memphis. Another story talks about a jock traveling to San Francisco and being impressed with the radio format he heard there (on KFOG i assume). Other jocks i worked with told me that the kids at JDX-FM came up with the idea on their own. (And some claimed the Memphis & SF stations were actually, fact, inspired by JDX-FM!)

However there were a couple of catches with this format change. Number one, they didn't really create an independent station on the FM side, it still didn't have a program director, it was still run by the PD on the AM side. Number two, they had a rule that the jocks still had to play one 'beautiful music' song every hour!! So you'd have the Stones & Jefferson Airplane followed by Andy Williams. Some accounts suggest that this restriction only lasted a few weeks, but i don't think that was the case. For one thing, i'm pretty sure i have a memory of actually HEARING this bizarre format, and i didn't move to Mississippi until 2 years after the format change. And secondly several people, including the legendary Wayne Harrison, told me that part of the way that they developed the thematic set philosophy which so defined ZZQ in it's glory years, was by finding more and more interesting ways to integrate those 'beautiful music' songs in with the rock.

Still, the AM sales staff was less than interested in in the station and the jocks themselves couldn't really convince anyone to buy ads. So most of the advertising was self promotion. The few ads they did have, the jocks made in-house because they couldn't afford an agency. They had fun in the production room, which of course became another creative outlet and another trademark of the station.  (Thus the FM converter jingle at the top of this post!)

It was sometime around 1971 that Arbitron finally included FM stations in the book, almost as a joke, and to everyone's shock, especially the folks at the station, JDX-FM did very well. Top five (some accounts incorrectly say #1, but i don't think ZZQ EVER hit #1). After this they did get their own PD and at this point they certainly dropped the one song an hour requirement, if they hadn't already. The ownership woke up, gave them some support and started selling ads.  It became profitable.  And AOR was born.


 In '72 they changed calls and became WZZQ.  Nothing else changed at that point.

The format that developed at WJDX-FM and the early WZZQ popped up at other places around the country, perhaps a few were earlier, but JDX-FM was clearly one of the first to develop it and ZZQ became a model that many stations around the country looked to as the format that became AOR (Album Oriented Rock) developed. There is no doubt that they were trendsetters. Many stations around the country put a Q or Z in their calls in homage to the station that started it.

During the whole run of the station from the mid 60s through the notorious end in 1981, there were really no mass staffing changes or firings. The staff evolved and the original staff in 1968 didn't really contain any familiar names (except Terry Stenzal who i worked with at WZRX). The jocks i came to know and love joined slowly. My Mom's British friend Judy Genthon did a few overnight shifts out there at some point, although i don’t remember her air name.


Strangely they went through program directors even more quickly than is typical in radio! Wayne Harrison was PD for a short while in the late 1970s.  Wayne was instrumental in creating what was, perhaps, the signature of WZZQ, and that was the sets.  All day long music was carefully selected (rarely in advance, usually on the run) by the jock.  Songs were chosen that sounded good together, that segued well into each other and, most legendarily, that had a similar theme or made a statement when placed together.

Some sets had a lyrical theme in common, some had a musical connection, some sets were more complex.  Not just a 'car' set, or a 'dog' set, but deeper and more complex sets.  Almost every song ZZQ played related in some way to the previous song, and to the rest of the songs in the set between breaks.  It was fun as a listener picking out those themes.  Sometimes they were very obvious, sometimes incredibly obscure, but always very thoughtful.  I'm told that many sets could only be understood by insiders, the people actually in the control room.  There were LOTS of inside jokes.


1970 through 74 were the true glory years. Freeform sets, no playlist, lots of support of local music, great jocks, in house production (ads), a passionate following, great stickers: the whole thing. The ratings were not bad. 5th, 6th, 7th in the market was common. Always top 10.

Most good radio stations develop a club-like fan base in their city, (stations strive for that!) but the camaraderie and patriotic devotion of WZZQ fans in the seventies was truly astonishing. It connected people across generations! Jackson Mississippi was a turbulent and difficult place. Let's just say there was lots of suspicion. But if you saw someone in the car next to you rocking to the same song you were listening to, you knew they were a ZZQ fan, you considered them a friend. A ZZQ shirt or sticker wasn’t an emblem of a clan, it was an essential identifying feature. Starting to listen to ZZQ became a rite of passage for kids growing up.

ZZQ was doing something truly special and, unusually, everyone realized that at the time.  We knew we had something very special.  It is not exaggerating to say that it was the most important thing in our lives.  It was wonderful, innovative, creative, and it connected. It connected with a huge segment of the population from age 15 to 40.

One big thing that helped to create the stature, is that they simply had no competition in the market. There were country stations, funk stations, top 40 stations, gospel stations, news stations, but absolutely nothing in the same universe as what they were doing. No watered down alternative, no harder rock or or more pop station substitute. They were all there was.

It's worth pointing out that ZZQ benefited from Jackson, Mississippi being a middle sized market. In the large markets there was too much money at stake to take any risks and so program managers and station managers always went with what was proven, what was 'safe'.  (I can't tell you how many times i heard that word, 'safe', in the years i was in radio. It drove me nuts.)  Small markets had few resources and rarely had anyone interested in breaking new ground.

But the mid-markets were ripe and Jackson was one of the most notable mid-markets. This manifested in other ways outside of radio too: Jackson was a frequent test market, always geting the new brand of potato chips first.  (Sometimes they were so bad they didn't go any further!) And, for example, Jackson was one of the first 3 markets in the country to get cable TV, and HBO in 1975!

And it still was an important middle market when i was working in radio in Jackson in the late 1980s. We had more influence than you'd think a market of a quarter million could have. I saw us break several songs and albums nationwide in the late eighties, most notably when Wayne Harrison working with me at WSTZ made Joe Satriani's Surfing With The Alien a hit. We were the first station in the country to add it. Everyone followed us. (The record company gave us the gold record as a thank you!)

This influence of being a mid-market was very important in helping WZZQ to thrive and in helping it influence the format at stations around the country.  Through the late 70s ZZQ was riding high.  They did well in the ratings, never the top spot, but usually in the top 5 and occasionally number 3. The advertisers certainly came in droves and the joint AM-FM sales staff was very excited about the station.


A partial playlist was introduced around '74, but they still did quite well. A strict playlist was introduced in 1978.  But they were part of defining a new format, Album Oriented Rock, and the playlist, while still set up around the same kind of annoying rotation that AM playlists had, still had deep album cuts, longer songs, older songs, local artists, the wonderful sets and well, a certain comfortable feel to it.  It made us happy.  It was a friend. Even if there did grow to be too much Journey & Foreigner -- the absolute devil's curse of the late 70s.

I learned so much from ZZQ. I would stay up late at night listening to Bowie, JJ Cale, Rundgren, ZZ Top, Hendrix, Warren Zevon and much, much, much more.

And then there are some songs, some things that i heard on ZZQ, maybe heard often there, so i assumed were well known nationwide, but in fact were local bands or deep album cuts that no one knew about. Even today, every once in a while i will be surprised to discover that people i know don't know about a certain song that i heard on ZZQ!

There were great jocks like David Adcock, Wayne Harrison, Sergio Fernandez, Dave Perkins, Bill Crews, Bruce Owen, Victor Hawkins and many more -- my memory is, unfortunately, fading.  There was an overnight jock who called herself Carla, had all of us high school boys in a lather. She played Kraftwerk's Autobahn now and then. Blew my mind. One night she played Pink Floyd's Careful With That Axe Eugene in it's entirety!!


But for me, and many others, the guy who epitomized it all was Perez. I can't think of WZZQ without thinking of Perez, he was, and still is, the best jock i've ever heard. I wanted to be like him. I listened to him like a teacher, a mentor. I listened to his breaks, i learned from his music, from the way he talked, from his production (something i could never, ever match!). He was amazing. I can't possibly say enough about his skills, his creativity, his knowledge. I was truly honored to work with him in later years.

By my junior year in high school (September of 1980) things had changed somewhat. There was a quickly aborted attempt at a shock jock type morning show with a guy (who i think was also PD) using the name Gary Phillips. Pretty much everyone hated that. ZZQ was a mellow friend, a conduit of excellent music, a community connector. That in your face thing just didn't fly.  They dropped it quickly.


They were still a great station, but much more strictly formatted. They still had no competition and the following was as passionate as ever, but now there were people who were upset. It was one of the most frequent topics of discussion. No one, i mean no one, that i knew, or that my parents knew, actually turned ZZQ off, but people were calling it "the new Q" and were comparing it negatively to both the '68 to '74 format, the '74 to '78 format, and even to last year. A lot of the loyalty in those days was felt to be based on past performance, not present. It was not what we had come to love. There was talk of petitions. "Bring back the real thing." But there certainly was no other possibility at all, people couldn't change the station. There was only top 40 or country.

Some people saw all these changes as a bad sign, and sure enough in early 1981 rumors started that they might be changing formats. People were horrified. People who were complaining a few months earlier were now shocked and furious at the thought of losing ZZQ entirely. I have to say none of us could actually imagine ZZQ being gone. It was like suggesting the sun was going to go away.

By the spring the rumors were confirmed and i remember fury in the newspaper, petitions in record stores and letter writing campaigns. There were frustrated, sad and angry discussions. It seemed impossible. We knew we'd had something very, very special, in a very dark place, and we really depended on it. We couldn't imagine life without it.

Years later i learned that the same thing was going on inside the station. The jocks, the program director, the general manager, the sales staff and pretty much every one from the secretaries on up protested the idea. They begged the new owner to think again. They were not happy at all. Even the folks on the AM side didn't like it. Some of this leaked out on the air. Comments were made.

Staff started to leave. New voices didn't help the situation. The new (sometime in late 1980 i think) PD and abrasive morning drive jock Keven Vandebrook took a lot of heat. We hated him for the overly commercial, less mellow, friendly changes. It may not have been his fault but among the fans he was universally blamed.

There was nothing anyone could do. I felt hopeless; I signed petitions, I sent a letter. But i knew we couldn't do anything. For the last weeks, perhaps all of June, they abandoned the New Q format and returned, albeit with the abrasive Keven in the morning, to glorious the freeform ZZQ of yore. It was a wonderful few weeks. We enjoyed it although it was like having a rock hovering over your head about to fall.

I have a reel to reel tape of the last 6 hours, (and i have recently transferred it to MP3). On the evening July 2, 1981 they played a series of songs, a death set, ending with Todd Rundgren's Death of Rock N Roll and the Door's The End. They signed off at midnight with the horrible last words: "This was WZZQ Jackson", and then dropped the signal, just static.

I cried. Lots of people did. I get goose bumps just writing about it. I was 18. It was in every way, a loss of innocence, a loss of youth. Nothing has ever been the same. I know at least one person who claims to this day that he has never recovered. We had lost a family member, a mentor, a connection, a strong friend who was always there. The emptiness was amazing. It is still known in Jackson, at least among people my age as the Day The Music Died. No one has to ask what day or what music.

But we had lost much more than just a friend, much more than just a radio format. We'd lost what connected people throughout the city. Those connections, between different high schools and neighborhoods disappeared. We also lost our identity. As rockin' teenagers we lost the focus of our identity but let's face it, Jackson was not a national leader, in well, anything. We had had something very special, something unique, something groundbreaking, something widely copied. We had had something that made us special and it was gone. We had been proud of it. Now we struggled with inferiority.

We felt this deeply. From the best imaginable to nothing. It was quite a shock. There is a full page in my high school yearbook dedicated to the end of ZZQ, and this was a yearbook that was published a full year later!!  Everyone in the school considered it the most important event of the year -- despite  happening before the year started.  And it was a profoundly emotional experience for a high school kid who planned to grow up to work in radio.

It was shocking to tune to 102.9 and hear country music the next morning. For weeks, even months, we would accidentally find radios still tuned to 102.9. Always shocking. Some people really didn't believe it would actually happen and when they heard the country twang, it was horrible. It made many of us really hate country music, which wasn't fair, but it did. And there was no alternative, it wasn't a matter of changing the dial, there was nothing.

I knew someone who printed out vicious letters of complaint on an early word processor and anonymously sent them to the stations periodically for almost 10 years! I knew someone who made a point of driving past the studio on the outskirts of town in the middle of the night and breaking a bottle in the middle of the driveway once or twice a month for years and years. People were hurt and angry.

There's something else too. Jackson had struggled to have a nationally recognized music scene for a number of years, starting in the late 1970s. Bobby Sutliff, The Windbreakers, Tim Lee and Radio London had some national releases but the scene never really got rolling. I can't help but feel like a big part of the reason for that was losing ZZQ. When i hear people talk about the Athens & Austin music scenes, especially in the late 80s, i can't help but think of what could've been on the middle of the Austin-Athens axis.

Because of the deep and powerful effect of having WZZQ from 1968 - 1981 Jackson always had an unusually thoughtful, educated, and deeply devoted fan base for non-top 40 rock; which is kind of surprising considering the size and location of the city. It was very noticeable in the late 80s when i was on Z106.

Our station was around for about 13 years, 10 with the name WZZQ.  After it changed to country it took another year to change the callsign to WMSI (i believe, but i ca not confirm, that one of the reasons it took so long was that they wanted WMIS but couldn’t get it). So for a whole year MISS 103, country, ID'd every hour as "WZZQ 102.9 Jackson." That really hurt. As a radio geek i have to admit i would occasionally tune in at the top of the hour just to hear it.

In the last book, even with the strict playlist, ZZQ was 3rd, which is fantastic. MISS 103 has been consistently #1. The owner thought he could do better financially with country and he was right. However, i did hear through the grapevine inside of Jackson radio that he only later realized how potent that station really was, and there are rumors, rumors only, of regrets.


A couple of years after the Day The Music Died, a small station north of Jackson got the calls WZXQ. It was on 101.7 with a very weak signal.  They adopted a rock format and called it ROCK 102. I think it was in early 1983, i don't know who was responsible. They were trying hard to continue the tradition. They hired some of the same folks. And it wasn't bad. Perez had some amazing shows. But it wasn't the same: ZZQ was gone and ROCK 102 didn't really last long. A station in Vicksburg got a Q in their call and advertised as "The New Q", but they couldn't deliver.

In 1988 WSTZ 106.7 adopted a rock format and had Victor Hawkins as PD with Bill Crews & Perez and, well, me. It was ok, not great, strictly playlisted except on the overnight. I had fun on the overnight and i always, always did it in the spirit of ZZQ. David Adcock started doing a weekly show. Wayne Harrison did one too.

But it also didn't last. There was a major shakeup and change of direction after only a year. The tower fell in an ice storm and we were on low power for 9 or 10 months after that and then we all got fired. That's when i left town. I can't personally speak to any other events. I know David Adcock continued his ZZQ memories show for many years on various stations. The spirit of the Q clearly survived in the city.

There were some strange changes in Jackson radio in the 1990s. WJDX-AM moved to 97.3 FM which was WSLI-FM's old frequency. They later moved back to AM, although i don't know if they are on 620 kHz now. In the late 90's the original WJDX (620 AM) became WJDS and WJDX moved to 96.3 FM which was occupied by what was WSLI-FM. So there was a WJDX-FM again.

The former ZZQ, MISS 103 i see, is now owned by Clear Channel and WSTZ 106.7 where i worked is also owned by Clear Channel.  They have combined the operations in the old Beasley & Watkins studios with Miss 103.

A station in Terre Haute Indiana got the WZZQ calls and they were around for probably something like 20 years (longer than our Q). I believe they were top 40. The owner lost the FCC license because he was caught sexually abusing children. A couple of years ago a Christian station in Pennsylvania got the calls, but they never broadcast under them, they changed after on a couple of months to WZXQ (which were the calls of the short lived Rock 102 in 1983-4). Now a country station in South Carolina has just gotten the WZZQ calls.

ZZQ is gone. But we remember.

Two antenna cables,
power wire,
mounting bracket,
knobs & dials,
in a nifty blue case!

© 2009 Mark Canizaro

Some links:
http://tinpan.fortunecity.com/newbonham/835/airchecks/mississippi.htm
http://wzzq1029.tripod.com/index.html
http://www.wakeatlanta.com/WJDXfm1_0.html



LAST SET July 2, 1981
Seven Stars {Peter Green 1979}  (All the tribes of the earth will mourn)
Yesterday {Beatles 1965}
[break.  Keven]
Sunshine of My Love {Cream 1967}
Station to Station {David Bowie 1976} (it's too late)
Changes {Black Sabbath 1972} (lost the best friend that i ever had)
She's Gone {Hall & Oates 1973}
Death Of Rock & Roll {Todd Rundgren 1975}
 [Keven goodbye message]
The End {The Doors 1970}
 [this was WZZQ]



Below is some of the licensing research i did today.
WEAC -
WZZQ - 07/13/2009
Where this callsign has been:
08/04/2000 on 107.5 in TERRE HAUTE IN - now DWZZQ
10/16/2002 on 88.3 in CHAMBERSBURG PA - now WZXQ
10/02/1995 on 107.5 in TERRE HAUTE IN - now DWZZQ
10/02/1995 on 1230 in TERRE HAUTE IN - now DDWBUZ
06/15/1982 on 107.5 in TERRE HAUTE IN - now DWZZQ
12/09/1981 on 102.9 in JACKSON MS - now WMSI-FM

July 2000 Indiana RadioWatch
Rock/WZZQ (107.5fm, Terre Haute) morning co-host Debbie Hunter exits, as well as air talent Danny Wayne. The two moves are un-related. Wayne is now at Country/WWSY (95.9fm, Seelyville).

July 2000 Indiana RadioWatch
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals has dismissed Michael Rice attempt to regain his licenses for WBOW (640am, Terre Haute IN), WZZQ-FM (107.5fm Terre Haute) and WZZQ-AM (640am, Terre Haute). In 1998 he was jailed, and stripped of FCC radio licenses, for sexually abusing children.

March 2001 Indiana RadioWatch
A stunt goes awry at Alternative WZZQ (107.5fm, Terre Haute). On Monday 27 March, MD/night guy Aaron Green played "Stoplight Jeopardy" with his listeners. According to the Terre Haute Tribune-Star, listeners won prizes for stopping at green lights, calling the station on a cell phone, and reporting other motorists' reactions. After calls from angry listeners, as well as an irate local police department, GM Dave Kirsch decided to dismiss Green the following morning. … Before we leave WZZQ, PD J. Jay King exits. Dave Kirsch is handling PD duties in the interim.

October 2002 North East RadioWatch
The FCC assigns new calls "WZZQ" to 88.3 in Chambersburg PA;

October 2002: North East RadioWatch
Across the state in Chambersburg, Four Rivers Community Broadcasting (the folks behind contemporary Christian WBYO 88.9 and its relays) have a new CP: WZZQ on 88.3 will run 140 directional watts when it signs on.

Dec 2002: North East RadioWatch
And while it's not yet on the air, WZZQ (88.3 Chambersburg) has already changed calls: it's now WZXQ.

October 2008 the Tribune Star.
107.5 WZZQ silent; was adult alternative "Z107-5" //1230; (640)

July 2009 REC news
license granted WZZQ - 07/13/2009 GAFFNEY SC US country and football

Sept 2009
Gaffney SC has a new fm station to fill the void of the old WGGI FM station. The new station is WZZQ FM 104.3 will simulcast with WEAC AM Why the new callsign -- WZZQ? What was wrong with the heritage WEAC callsign? Could have resurrected the WAGI callsign? Must have been playing "drop the Scrabble tiles"? At 250 watts, it has some problems covering all of Cherokee County. It's not ideal for Gaffney football fans.

Sept 2009
Word FM - Christian hits
88.3 (WZXQ) Chambersburg, PA