books, booze and bikes

We're back!

2005-05-27T12:29:00.000-07:00

Time flies, etc. etc.

But we're back - with more books, booze and bikes news.

So what's been going on?

First off, Scribbling Woman (http://www.unbsj.ca/arts/english/Jones/mt/) aka Miriam Jones, an assistant professor of English at the University of New Brunswick, fell all over herself with apoplectic apologies after I interviewed her for a Quill & Quire article on publishing and blogging. According to Jones, who says she "used to do 'media work,'" she owes "an apology to the blogosphere" for poor representation. Talk about delusions of grandeur. And, for the record, no, I didn't misquote Jones - something she hedges about - because I recorded our conversation, transcribed it and properly placed all quotes in context. You can read her fumblings here: http://www.thevalve.org/go/valve/article/blogging_and_print_publishing/

Secondly, I've been busier than a one-legged unicyclist. Since I last posted here, some of the articles I've published include a short piece on Nova Scotia's Thomas Raddall Park as part of Explore's (http://www.explore-mag.com/magazine.htm) cover package on Canada's Unsung Parks, as well as another piece for the publication on Jacki Lewis, a Toronto lawyer who intends to circumnavigate PEI in a kayak starting on Canada Day to raise money for breast cancer research. Jacki's Website is here: http://www.kayakforthecure.com/cure2.htm

The Western Standard (http://www.westernstandard.ca/website/index.cfm?) ran my piece on why the federal government should part with Hibernia, while Atlantic Business Magazine ran my massive take-out on how the PEI government managed to lose $31-million of taxpayers' money in the lobster plant business. As well, The Ottawa Citizen published my wide-eyed look at Moncton's annual Northrop Frye Festival.

But enough but me...

How about that Ivan Basso? He's poised for a win at the Giro d'Italia. Thanks to OLN for deciding not to broadcast the race in Canada (they stopped about the same time I quit posting here - coincidence or...?). So I've had to rely on print coverage, some of which may be found here: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/05/27/sports/s090332D96.DTL

Look for Basso to win the Tour this year. That's a fearless prediction you heard here first.

Stop the blog! Armstrong retires

2005-04-19T04:02:00.000-07:00

Really, Lance Armstrong's press conference hardly delivered earth-shattering news; just about everyone expected the six-time Tour de France winner to announce his retirement immediately following this summer's crack at a seventh win.

It would have been way more entertaining if George Hincapie had been right. Armstrong's team mate predicted the cyclist was going to announce his bid for Governor of Texas.

Just think of the possibilities: cars outlawed in favour of bicycles; thousands of kilometres of new cycle paths constructed; tax breaks for individuals who exercised so much time per day. All that and Sheryl Crow as the first lady too!

I can already see the Governor's first press conference: "Well, Jeb Bush tried hard to catch me, but he just didn't have the momentum in that last county. But I was feeling good, so I just decided to pick up and go."

The New York Times has a nice multimedia package on Armstrong at: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/19/sports/othersports/19cycling.html?oref=login

The paper is also reporting the Tyler Hamilton, the Olympic Gold medalist in the time trail in August, has been suspended for two years for a drug violation. It's a heart-breaking revelation. Many cyclists look up to Hamilton for his gritty style, best exemplified when he rode day after day in the 2003 Tour de France with a broken collar bone.

The irony of the Hamilton suspension coming on the same day Armstrong announced his retirement won't be lost on many. Armstrong is among the world's most tested athletes for drugs.

A clear winner

2005-04-18T04:59:00.000-07:00

Italian racer Danilo Di Luca sprinted to win the Amstel Gold Cup Sunday, overcoming the course's 30-some hills and emerging, despite the fog that blanketed the event, the clear winner.

How foggy was it? Bad enough that OLN carried coverage of the minor California Redland race instead. The poor weather conditions in Holland made it impossible for the television helicopters to go out and shoot footage of the Gold Cup. Viewers saw the final sprint and that was it for the 40th anniversary of the one-day classic.

For more coverage: http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2005/apr05/apr18news

Of course today's big news, aside from the Boston Marathon (http://www.bostonmarathon.org/), is of course Lance Armstrong's press conference set for this afternoon. Armstrong is widely expected to announce his retirement following this year's edition of the Tour de France.

Boonan cobbles together a win

2005-04-11T12:38:00.000-07:00

Tom Boonen officially became the Belgium master in the one-day classics when, just two weeks after winning the Tour of Flanders, he pulled off a major coup with a winning sprint at Sunday's Paris-Roubaix race. In doing so, the Quick Step team rider crushed the hopes of Discovery Team's George Hincapie, who had hoped to become the first American to win the so-called Queen of the Classics.

Paris-Roubaix offers a gritty spectacle with the hard-charging peloton jouncing over treacherous cobblestone sections during the race. During yesterday's event a crash seemed to occur over every cobblestone portion. At one point the peloton appeared to implode as a rider went down in the middle of the pack, causing a chain reaction of cyclists to vanish in a tumble of wheels and bike frames. One of the unlucky racers was one-day classic expert Peter Van Petegem, who withdrew from the event.

Boonen and Hincapie broke away late in the race with two other riders, dropping the Swiss giant Magnus Backstetd - last year's winner - before they reached the velodrome at Roubaix. Once in the velodrome, it was all over but the crying. Boonen sat on the wheel of Hincapie, who in turn drafted Spanish rider Juan Antonio Flecha. While Hincapie and Flecha hesitated, Boonen went, sprinting off the American's back wheel to win the grueling race.

For full coverage, check out Samuel Apt writing in the International Herald Tribune: http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/04/10/news/bike.html

Keller versus Bourdain

2005-04-07T04:24:00.000-07:00

Bouchon by Thomas Keller - The owner of Napa Valley's world-famous French Laundry decided to open a bistro in Yountville, California called Bouchon. I was lucky enough to eat there a year-and-a-half ago and enjoyed one of the best lunches of my life. So naturally when Keller released his bistro cookbook, I was intrigued.

What made it particularly interesting was not too long ago I'd read Anthony Bourdain's treatise on bistro cooking and so I wanted to see how the two compared. You can imagine.

It comes as no surprise to discover that Keller is much more finicky than Bourdain in just about every way. Bourdain's approach is, "C'mon, numb nuts! You can slap that roast chicken together."

In contrast, Keller's book is fussy and the recipes more complex in their preparation.

The one thing that struck me as innocuous about Bouchon (the book), however, was its over-sized coffee table format. The book is so unwieldy as to be awkward in a kitchen. Nor is it the sort of volume you'd want to accidentally splash red wine on.

Whereas Bourdain's, well, it practically begs for red wine....

Both struck me as having equally valid approaches and both featured recipes I'd like to try. Overall, I found Bourdain's more down-to-earth and approachable, although for sheer eye candy Keller's Bouchon is unmatched.

Booming Boonan crushes Hincapie's hopes

2005-04-04T13:06:00.000-07:00

Like the alliteration?

The race wasn't too darn bad either. Of couse, I'm referring to last night's Tour of Flanders, during which Tom Boonan (Quick Step) with only nine kilometres to go broke away from a lead group of six riders to capture the race.

The event made for a wonderful night of coach potatoism and offered a lot in terms of sheer cycling spectacle. With 17 climbs, many of them at a steep 20% grade, over the last 50 kilometres of the Belgium course, the riders already had a tough enough task. Add cobblestones and the race was positively daunting.

Discovery Channel was out in full force for the race with Lance Armstrong riding support for George Hincapie, who hoped to become the first American to bring home gold from the Tour of Flanders. It didn't happen. Instead, Hincapie was snoozing in 30th place when the six-man break developed. Why the veteran racer wasn't further up front isn't clear, but it certainly played out as poor tactics.

For an interview with 24-year-old Boonan, go here: http://www.cyclingnews.com/road/2005/apr05/rvv05/?id=features/tom_boonen05

Classic TV

2005-04-03T14:13:00.000-07:00

That's how I'd define Corner Gas. It's a great Canadian comedy - literate, intelligent, funny and even has bikes. How great is that?

In the most recent episode, the two police officers who patrol the Saskatchewan town of Dog River, the setting of Corner Gas, get bicycles. One of them even ends up with an aero helmet with "police" lettered on the side. It's absolutely hilarious and, yes, you probably need to see it.

Not so funny is the fact that cars keeping backing over their bikes, trashing the frames and wheels.

The best part of all that is the bikes are only a sub-plot on this extremely amusing show. I just adore it - but then my friend Gordon tells me that only folks from the West get it. (Yes, I know this blog is written from Prince Edward Island, but I'm from Edmonton and will always be a prairie boy).

Anyways, kudos to the folks at Corner Gas for their creative use of bikes. Check them out on the Interweb (as the good folks of Dog River call it) at: http://www.cornergas.com/

Everyone's blogging, but is anyone reading?

2005-03-31T14:00:00.000-08:00

That's partially the question I pose in a Quill & Quire feature in the April issue (just out on newsstands or by subscription, but ironically not available online) in Better Marketing Through Blogs.

Specifically, I talked to a number of Canadian publishers to find out whether they're trying to place reviews and promote their books through blogs. The answer was, not really, not yet.

A handful of small press publishers are interested in the medium, but the larger houses have yet to pick up on the potential. That may change: as I point out, in the United States several bloggers - Maud Newton (http://maudnewton.com/blog/), Moby Lives (http://www.mobylives.com/) and The Elegant Variation (http://marksarvas.blogs.com/elegvar/) - routinely receive review copies.

As well, a number of US bloggers have signed book contracts, including foodie Clotilde Dusoulier for her blog, Chocolate & Zucchini (http://chocolateandzucchini.com/).

The two most prominent Canadian blogs, at least in terms of literature, appear to be Bookninja (http://www.bookninja.com/) and Scribbling Woman (http://www.unbsj.ca/arts/english/jones/mt/), the latter recently named as a top-10 blog by The Guardian of London.

One blog with a ton o' potential, if all goes according to plan (dependent upon the receipt of funding) is a new litblog British Columbia-based online magazine The Tyee (http://www.thetyee.ca/) hopes to launch in April.

Not everyone believes the future of blogging is bright. Rolf Maurer, the publisher of Vancouver's New Star Books, told me, "Salon is always going to be a hundred times more important than even the most influential blog in the world."

Cheesy race not so soft

2005-03-30T11:48:00.000-08:00

The Paris-Camembert bike race sounds like just the event for fat guys who love rich cheese - but that's not the case.

Not as well known as other European spring races, the event that takes place around Vimoutiers attracts some of bicycling's big names, including one Lance Armstrong.

Vimoutiers is indeed one of the French towns that produces Camembert - and Lance, it seems, must have been sampling the local product, because he finished 24th in the 200-kilometre race, losing to Laurent Brochard of Bouygues Telecom.

For full details, check the article in The International Herald Tribune by Samuel Apt: http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/03/30/sports/BIKE.html

Apt's piece is more than a blow-by-blow description of the race, but rather a short essay on why the small race has flourished in recent years when other little known cycling events haven't done as well.

Look out, Lance

2005-03-28T12:44:00.000-08:00

A couple of years ago American cyclist Bobby Julich was burnt out racing for Team Telecom. Well, look out, Lance, because that was then.

Yesterday, Julich smoked everyone in the World Criterium International time trial to win the race, three seconds over CSC teammate Jens Voigt.

TSN/OLN did the right thing this weekend and broadcast the event in Canada. Keep it up, guys!

If you tuned in, you got to see an hour-and-a-half of coverage from the second day of the two-day event. The first part of the coverage consisted of highlights from the road race, with the cyclists peddling over nine - count 'em! nine! - mountain passes. Julich, Thomas Dekker (not Eric, the veteran racer, as commentator Paul Sherwin mistakenly referred to him in the final moments of the program) Ivan Basso and Jorg Jaksche broke away from the pack two kilometres into the race, maintaining the lead for the distance.

Jaksche, riding for Liberty Seguros-Wurth, dominated all the climbs, actually putting Basso - a star performer on climbs in previous Tour de Frances - in trouble. But the quartet stayed together and in the last 1,000 metres Basso made a move, which Jaksche countered. At which point, Julich counter-attacked in a brilliant tactical move.

Incredibly, Jaksche had the legs to go after Julich, dragging Rabobank's Dekker - who at 22 years of age is making quite a name for himself - along. At the line, Dekker outsprinted Jaksche and won the stage - likely quite a piss-off for Jaksche, who had done most of the work throughout.

That same afternoon all the riders streaked over the eight-kilometre time trial course. For awhile it looked as if team Gerolsteiner's Levi Leipheimer would win the time trial, but then Jens Voigt turned in another blazing performance similar to his ride in Paris-Nice.

Voigt probably had a couple of minutes to bask in his ride when Julich shattered his time and won the Criterium.

Now with this and Paris-Nice under his belt in three weeks, Julich is starting to look like a serious contender for a Tour de France win. It will be worth watching the Tour of Flanders next Sunday to see how Armstrong is riding.

Coverage, with excellent Graham Watson photos, is here: http://www.velonews.com/race/int/articles/7754.0.html

A thing of beauty

2005-03-24T05:06:00.000-08:00

...if you're a hardcore mountain biker.

Check out the photos of built bikes over at http://www.competitivecyclist.com/za/CCM?PAGE=PHOTO_GALLERY We're talking about some serious eye candy here.

And then when you're done, hop over to http://www.competitivecyclist.com/za/CCM?PAGE=BRAND&BRAND.ID=131 and read the essay on Chris Chance, Fat Chance mountain bikes, and the continuing evolution of Salsa bikes.

Yes, it's ad copy, but informative, well-written and convincing.

Oh-oh. I think I've succumbed. Yes, I'll take one of each, please.

For those of you who aren't familiar with Competitive Cyclist, it's a Website where you can build your own dream bike online - and then, if you have the bucks, buy it. They've run a road bike site for a few years now, but the mountain bike site is new.

Two bottles of Linkwood later

2005-03-23T05:35:00.000-08:00

...and Joannes van den Heuvel is suddenly on about George Bush, fish and the Axis of Evil.

Huh?

Obviously, the single malt worked its magic.

Still not certain what I'm on about? Check out the insanity over at http://www.maltmadness.com/index.html
Van den Heuvel just relaunched his single-malt blog two days ago and he's drinking like a...er, fish, so that he has content to post.

If you've never been over to Malt Madness. Check it out. Over 500 pages devoted to the "water of life" may be found at the Website.

Van den Heuvel didn't have too much to say about the Linkwood, although he still has yet to weigh in with details on it. I've tried a bottling of the 12-year-old and didn't find it particularly special. If I could only take one dram to a desert island, Linkwood would not be it - although two bottles of it apparently leads to deranged thoughts about George Bush.

It's a dog's life

2005-03-21T04:29:00.000-08:00

...especially over at Outdoor Life Network, where last week they promised Canadian viewers coverage of the spring classic bike race, Milan to San Remo. Instead, what did we get? A race alright: a dog race.

OLN has dogs on the brain. Dogs With Jobs, Ultimate Dogs, Top Dogs - that makes up the bulk of OLN's programming. In fact, the perfect OLN show would be a dog that looks like Lonely Planet's Ian Wright working out with a Bowflex.

There's nothing wrong with the dog programming. Our previous cat, Lupin, used to adore Dogs With Jobs. It gave her an overwhelming sense of moral superiority to watch the dogs go through their paces for their kibble while she lazed around on the living room rug.

What's anger-inducing, however, is for a couple of years now Americans have been treated to cycling coverage every Sunday while Canadians get such drivel as Surviorman.

Surviorman indeed! I'd like to stick him on a bike in the Tour de France peloton and see how long he'd last.

TSN, which carries OLN in Canada, doesn't seem interested in carrying much original programming, but rather is content to host the same five shows and infomercials over and over again. Previously, cycling fans have complained about the network's lack of bike racing coverage. It hasn't worked.

But if you want to try again, go to http://www.tsn.ca/oln/contact.asp and email OLN and let them know you'd enjoy more cycling coverage behind the Tour de France.

Hell freezes over

2005-03-18T05:28:00.000-08:00

Punk legend Richard Hell tears into interviewer Adam Travis over at Bookslut (http://www.bookslut.com/features/2005_03_004703.php). Travis interviewed Hell for the literary blog, and then foolishly sent the singer-now-poet a transcription.

To put it mildly, Hell was less than impressed.

"You're a callow kid with a job reading slush for a pretentious, irrelevant 'poetry' magazine,'' Hell writes in one of his gentler annotations to the interview.

Hell rose to fame in the mid-1970s when his band the Voidoids had a hit with Love Hurts (not to be confused with the Nazareth song of the same title). These days Hell writes poetry and takes exception to writers who don't immediately recognize his talent.

At any rate, Bookslut is onto something: they should run their interview transcripts past all their subjects, and then gather the outraged responses and publish them. The blog could become like the Paris Review with teeth.

Meanwhile, over at The Elegant Variation, (http://marksarvas.blogs.com/elegvar/), Mark Sarvas is "into heavy road bike buying mode." We approve.

That's a pretty - and pricey - Pinarello bike frame he's thinking about. I hope he can ride the darn thing.

Previously in his blog, Sarvas has tried to impress with the macho spinning workouts he participates in, complaining about sore muscles, etc.

Hey, Mark, why don't you come over to PEI and check out one of our spin classes? They're so tough that people bleed. No kidding. Last week, during the class, one woman suddenly developed a nose bleed.

Maybe someone needs to organize a blogger's bike race....

Everyone's an editor

2005-03-17T04:26:00.000-08:00

...especially over at http://codebook.jot.com/WikiHome

That's where author, Stanford University professor and well-known member of the digerati, Lawrence Lessig, is posting the entire text of his 1999 book, Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace.

But Lessig's not just looking for readers, but editors, in the project he is billing as a "book by Lawrence Lessig and you."

Lessig says the project is the first online, collaborative book update. The work is being done on a wiki, a Website that lets readers edit text and add comments.

Just don't expect a credit: Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace by Lawrence Lessig, Joe Smith, and 10,000 Others, because it isn't going to happen. The new version, to be published in 2005 by Basic Books, will be credited to the Code V.2 Wiki, while royalties will go to the Creative Commons (http://creativecommons.org/), a non-profit copyright collective.

Overall, it sounds like a writer's worst nightmare: not one, not two, but thousands of editors having a go at your work. How scary is that?

Nicely done

2005-03-14T04:43:00.000-08:00

Team CSC rider Bobby Julich became the first American to win the spring classic Paris-Nice race yesterday, neatly cruising into the port city without a mishap - or so it looked on OLN's coverage last night. However, VeloNews is reporting that close to the finish, the veteran rider very nearly hooked his handlebars with a photographer's motorbike. The story is here: http://www.velonews.com/race/int/articles/7688.0.html

During yesterday's race, Liberty Seguros rider Alberto Contador broke away with a small group early on, holding off the peloton through the many climbs. As they began the final five-kilometre climb of the day before circling back into Nice for the finish, Contador stomped on the pedals and left the others behind.

As he sped down the twisting descent toward the finish, Contador had a heart-stopping moment when one of his cleats appeared to suddenly come free from the pedal. At high-speed, he veered toward the cliff face and looked poised to go over the bars in what would have been a serious crash when he miraculously recovered and continued on to the city.

In the main pack, some 45 seconds behind, Alexander Vinokourav of T-Mobile once again showed his climbing prowess, bursting free of the pack and catching Contador on the last downhill of the day. But coming into the finish line, it was clear that Contador had nothing left. A clearly frustrated Vinokourav towed the rider toward the line, but with only 100 metres to go, the pack swallowed them up and Alejandro Valverde riding for Illes Balears took the sprint and the stage.

During the post-race interview, Julich - who lives and trains in Nice alongside Vinokourav - told OLN that he actually disobeyed his race director's orders and sat back a bit, hoping to give Vinokourav the stage win.

So where was Lance Armstrong in all this? The six-time Tour de France winner begged off in Stage Four with a sore throat and high-tailed it back to Spain.

Interestingly enough, this is the first year the pro teams are required to ride all of the spring classics as part of the newly formed Pro Tour. Armstrong has largely avoided those races in the past, choosing to train for the Tour. This year it could mean that he either rides a number of uninspiring spring classics and then wins the Tour or tries to capture some of the early races, but risks losing the coveted seventh win at the Tour. Right now, it appears he's employing the former strategy.

Certainly, new Armstrong sponsor Discovery Channel couldn't have been too thrilled with their star rider's lackluster performance in the first major race of the year.

What $250,000 gets you

2005-03-11T04:13:00.000-08:00

Not too darn much, apparently.

I contributed two pieces to the cover story package in the current issue of Harrowsmith Country Life (available on newsstand only), which is titled What can you buy for $350,000?

Originally, the idea was to look at what $250,000 would fetch a home-buyer in select rural areas of Canada. However, the price point went up another hundred grand after we discovered a quarter-million really didn't get you much for your money in certain locales.

I wrote about the real estate markets in Canmore, Alberta and Eastern Kings County, Prince Edward Island. In the former, $250,000 would get you a view of the mountains - from a cozy double-wide trailer. Not exactly the sort of home Harrowsmith readers are keen on reading about.

Ultimately, the cheapest Canmore place we ran came in at $279,900, a 1,237 sq. ft. condo just off the highway. Closer to average was the $829,000 home in the Eagle Terrace subdivision, "probably not everyone's idea of country living."

Pricey? Caledon Hills in Ontario topped it with a $895,000 place. But that was for a "vintage home on a rolling acreage."

And I bet they're still on Internet dial-up out there. . . .

A booze post - at last!

2005-03-09T04:32:00.000-08:00

Well, sort of....

You may have begun wondering why, exactly, this blog is called Books, Booze and Bikes when so far only literature and bicycles have figured in the content. So by popular demand I'm introducing some booze content today.

Here's the item:

On Monday's stage of the Paris-Nice spring classic, Lance Armstrong ended the stage 44th, hardly a stellar showing.

I can practically hear the eyes rolling in your heads. What does that have to do with booze, you're wondering? It's bloody cycling again!

Ah, but here's the kicker: in the International Herald Tribune( http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/03/07/sports/bike.html ) Armstrong told the great cycling reporter Samuel Apt (whom many readers know from his long-time Tour "day" France - to use OLN commentator Bob Roll's pronunciation - coverage in the New York Times), "Don't say I spent the winter partying, because I didn't."

Apt reports, however, that Armstrong did attend the Grammys and an Academy Awards party with girl friend Sheryl Crow ("All I want to do/is have some fun.").

There. That's sort of a booze item. Right?

Paris ( to Nice) in the springtime

2005-03-07T04:33:00.000-08:00

Ah, the freezing temperatures, the slick cobblestones, the driving rain, the peloton pile-ups - this must have been the thinking when it comes to waxing rhapsodic over Paris (to Nice) in the spring.

The spring classic kicked off yesterday with a four-kilometre prologue and, naturally, the big news was that Lance Armstrong chose it as his debut for the 2005 race season.

But fans hoping for a blistering performance from the six-time winner of the Tour de France (or as former road racer and OLN commentator Bob Roll kept insistently calling it, the Tour day France) were in for a disappointment.

Looking slightly pudgy (but that could have been the way his jersey bagged out in front), Lance leisurely turned the pedals to come in 140th. But then, as he told the press after, he was just there to race a bit and get prepped for his seventh Tour win. Lance, who spends most of his time between Spain and Austin, TX training, complained about the cold and said within seconds of leaving the starting gate his fingers were numb.

In-Form rider Jens Voigt won the prologue in five minutes and 15 seconds.

Coverage may be found here: http://www.velonews.com/race/int/articles/7656.0.html

http://www.dailypeloton.com/displayarticle.asp?pk=7655
http://www.dailypeloton.com/displayarticle.asp?pk=7639

Perhaps what was most amazing about all this was Canadian viewers were actually able to see the prologue televised. Normally, OLN only feeds the cycling to its American audience. It's not clear from the TSN/OLN.ca schedule whether we'll continue to receive Cyclysm Sundays, as the program is called, here in Canada. But let's hope. The American schedule for the races is here: http://www.olntv.com/htmlpage.asp?htmlid=24

Reading: a bit of this, a bit of that

2005-03-05T12:55:00.000-08:00

Here's the current reading list. Maybe you'll find something that interests you.

1. Chris Carmichael's Food for Fitness: Eat Right to Train Right. Okay, okay, it's bike-related and not just a pure book thing. Literary merit? Well, figure that out for yourself.

Informational? Not half-bad actually. Lance Armstrong's coach, aided by a couple of nutritionists, gives you the skinny on proper eating. Most of it is common sense - like don't lard on the fat and take in plenty of carbohydrates. The book includes plenty of solid scientific rationale and a few ho-hum recipes.

The only thing I didn't enjoy is Carmichael kept flogging his Carmichael Training Systems program throughout the book - and all things Powerbar since he helped them develop some items as well. Still, he helped Lance eat his way to six Tour wins.

All of which leads me to what I kept telling people last summer at the height of the Atkins Diet frenzy: that they should forget Atkins and try the Tour de France diet. What's that, you wonder? It's like this: You ride 200 kilometres a day with at least two category one climbs and a major sprint at the finish and then you get to eat as much as you want of any damn thing.

2. Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook. Another food book, you're saying? What's wrong with this guy? Doesn't he read any real books?

My friends, Bourdain - for those of you who haven't read him - is the Hunter S. Thompson of the kitchen set, a crazed, uncontrollable fiend who worships the organs of small animals. (You think I'm kidding? Read the book). Bourdain made his reputation on Kitchen Confidential, an expose of restaurant culture, but his real masterpiece is A Cook's Tour, in which he wheedled a round-the-world trip from his publisher so that he could eat exotic foods in far-off places. The man is a genius.

Don't take my word for it. Check out Les Halles Cookbook, named for the bistro in New York for which he is the executive chef. For starters, this is the first really serious guy's cookbook I've ever read (well, okay, maybe second along with Jim Harrison's output). Forget all the others about grilling, etc. Bourdain speaks to the inner guy.

Check out this excerpt. It makes me weep with joy:

"This book aims to be a field manual to strategy and tactics, which means that in the following pages, I will take you by the hand and walk you through the process in much the same way - and in the same caring, sensitive, diplomatic tone - as I would a new recruit in my restaurant kitchen.

"Which means that if, from time to time, I refer to you as a 'useless screwhead,' I will expect you to understand and to not take it personally.''

Among other things, Bourdain will teach you how to make Daube Provencale, a tasty looking lamb stew; Boeuf Bourguignon; Poulet Roti (Bourdain helpfully adds: "That's roast chicken, numbnuts! And if you can't properly roast a damn chicken then you are one helpless, hopeless, sorry-ass bivalve in an apron."); and all manner of tripe, kidney and blood sausage dishes (thought I was kidding about the small animal organs, didja?).

A true classic.

3. A Complicated Kindness by Miriam Toews. At last! you say. A real piece of literature. And, I for one, would not disagree.

Toews' award-winning novel (a Giller Prize this year) is acidly funny, sort of Catcher in the Rye from a female perspective crossed with Rudy Weibe, if you can believe it. This Winnipeg-based writer whips off one zinger after another. Obviously, she missed her true calling as a Comedy Network writer. Pa dum! But seriously folks, she is a wonderful writer with an extremely strong sense of voice and setting.

4. The Fabulist by Stephen Glass. A lying bastard writes his memoir in fictional form. Glass, of course, is infamous as The New Republic writer who fabricated numerous stories and was subsequently fired. Here, he rewrites his life, taking us through all the shame of misleading everyone who knew him, but ultimately arriving at redemption. That's the great thing about novels: you get to write yourself a happy ending (Someone should tell Avril Lavigne).

The workmanship of the writing along with the gross remorsefulness of the tone make for dreary reading. Glass spends lots of time fantasizing a new life into being (well, hey! what else to you do after you've been dismissed for making things up) and even creates a sparkling, special girlfriend for himself.

The Fabulist isn't so fab, after all. Maybe Jason Blair (the NY Times plagiarist) has a better book in him.

Climb every mountain

2005-03-02T11:31:00.000-08:00

A few days ago a friend of mine, Charlie Beristain, emailed me a link to a Website that is a must-view for anyone interested in hill climbing on their bikes, cycle training, graphs, charts and other obessive-related material.

Doug's Northeast Cycling Site ( http://home.sprintmail.com/~dsjansen/ ) is a wonder of tables showing such things as power and weight to time ratios for hill-climbing cyclists. It comes as no surprise to learn that Doug works for an aerospace firm, where - I'm guessing - he might be an engineer.

Charlie is worth mentioning as well, having already achieved 15 minutes of fame for not only getting noticed in Bicycling Magazine, but for the reason why the publication saw fit to print his name in the first place: At the World's Masters Mountain Bike race in Quebec in 2003, Charlie placed second overall in the 60-Plus category.

Having ridden with Charlie when he came up from his home in Northeastern U.S. last fall, I can attest to the fact that he is not only fit, but a great bike handler as well. Charlie also runs a great bike-related Website over at: http://pages.prodigy.com/CharlieB/page.htm

Boxer bike ban

2005-02-28T14:04:00.000-08:00

While US Senator Barbara Boxer probably has good intentions with her bill that would designate 300,000 acres as federal wilderness, it's a shame that she believes mountain bikes have no place there. As Bicycle Retailer reports, Boxer's bill is likely to pass the Senate this week, starting the process to cutting access to 170 miles of singletrack trail in Northern California. Read the story here: http://209.11.49.239/bicycleretailer/headlines/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000817831

A better solution would be to accommodate mountain bikes on designated singletrack and offer stiff penalties to those who leave the trail. If the trails already exist, not much will be accomplished by chasing cyclists off of them.

Okay, already, I'll present

2005-02-26T12:29:00.000-08:00

The only problem is no one has asked me...to present an Oscar, that is.

And why would I want to?

Well, a news release from the Opus Hotel convinced me it might just be worth my while. The Opus, located in the ever-so-trendy Yaletown district of Vancouver, is giving away - giving away! - to Oscar presenters a $10,000 package.

Hand out an Oscar and the Opus is promising they'll hand over, among other goodies:

* Three nights accommodation in an Opus executive suite;
* Dinner for two at the hotel's "award-winning" Elixir Restaurant;
* Two OXIA oxygen personal canisters (either this is to aid you in getting your daily hit of fresh air or Oscar presenters are much older than I thought);
* Private Pilates session for two at Yaletown Pilates.

And there's more: including a stay at Whistler, free ski lifts and so forth.

I know it's shallow of me to want to present an Oscar just so I can receive this package among all the other goodies in my presenter's gift basket, but isn't that what it's all about, folks? I mean, we're talking the Oscars here. It's not like Bono getting the Nobel Prize or anything...or, er, maybe it is.

Well, whatever! as all the beautiful people who lug oxygen tanks around say.

Now excuse me, I have to practice my Oscar presenting form. Kiss, kiss.

Extra, extra!

2005-02-25T04:02:00.000-08:00

I have several articles in print right now. One is a 3,000 word profile of Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams, this week's cover story for The Western Standard (http://www.westernstandard.ca/website/index.cfm ). Another is a 1200-word article on the entrepreneurial spirit of Saint John, New Brunswick-based DreamCatcher Books and Publishing in the current issue of Quill & Quire (http://www.quillandquire.com/).

The Standard story should be available online (registration required) in another week. The Quill story is only available on the newsstand or to subscribers.

And in today's National Post I argue on the Editorial pages that Prince Edward Island's fish law suit against the federal government is a costly folly.

P.E.I. Escalating a fish fight
National Post Fri 25 Feb 2005
Page: A18 Section: Editorials
Byline: Charles Mandel

Frustrated by years of unproductive wrangling with the federal government, Prince Edward Island has decided to turn up the heat on the fish fracas. On Wednesday, it launched a lawsuit against the Government of Canada and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. This is the latest shot across the bow in the ongoing and acrimonious battle over fishery resource allocation.

The suit alleges that the federal Minister's failure to establish an open and accountable process for the fishery "violated the rule of law as guaranteed by the Canadian constitution, violated the Oceans Act by putting conservation at risk, failed to conform to his own policies, violated his public trust obligations and failed to exercise licensing authority in accordance with the principles of procedural fairness."

Kevin MacAdam, the Island's Agriculture, Fisheries and Aquaculture Minister, said Thursday that P.E.I. wants fisheries policy to be subject to a "fair, clear, open transparent process." Accordingly, the suit is designed to challenge Fisheries Minister Geoff Regan's constitutional power over the resource.

MacAdam said that although P.E.I.'s $350-million fishing industry contributes more to the federal economy than that of any other province, "we continue to be adversely affected by unfair and arbitrary decisions that affect its continued development." The province contends that its allocation of fish -- including shrimp, snow crab and bluefin tuna -- ignores such criteria as historic dependence and economic viability.

The lawsuit recalls the battle last fall between P.E.I. and New Brunswick over the herring fishery, arguing that the herring factory boat exclusion zone is misplaced and is actually putting the fishery at risk.

Federal MP Shawn Murphy, who represents the Island riding of Hillsborough, wonders if the suit is an attempt by the provincial government to divert attention away from the $31-million scandal over its loan guarantees to a fish processor.

Murphy may be right, but the Island's anger over the fishery is understandable. The dispute over the herring zone alone has gone on without resolution since 1984. In 2004, Island fishermen received reductions in snow crab catch quotas, while New Brunswick and Quebec saw their quotas increase. The story is similar with other species.

Yet the lawsuit seems unlikely to succeed, as it challenges Ottawa in an area -- resource protection -- where judges typically grant governments broad discretion. In the meantime, the case will drag through the courts for years, providing employment for batteries of well-paid lawyers. The cost of all this is something that a tiny province running an estimated $125-million deficit can ill afford.

As frustrated as the province is, it should drop the suit and return to negotiations before the people of P.E.I. find themselves on the hook.

Send money

2005-02-24T05:51:00.000-08:00

Are you looking to become the next William Randolph Hearst? Thirsting for a media empire of your own? Then check out Posting for Profit in today's UK Guardian online( http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/story/0,3605,1423439,00.html ).

Writer Bobbie Johnson details a number of bloggers who are cashing in with commerical blogs. Some are grabbing book contracts; others are moving into punditry; and still others are crossing blogging with print media to try and create new products.

A few even hold fund-raising drives and have convinced their readers to send in donations.

"Thanks to these high-profile success stories, thousands of bloggers hold out hope of turning their hobby into a paying job,'' Johnson writes.

What's next? Lock-out sites available only to registered users? What's that? You want to read Buddy's Online Journal (apologies if such a blog exists)? Not so fast. You'll need to purchase a subscription.

Personally, I'm waiting for the inevitable round of IPBOs (Initial Public Blog Offerings) that will result and the subsequent second-generation online boom.

Bike dope

2005-02-23T04:56:00.000-08:00

It might be Millar Time again, reports VeloNews European correspondent, Andrew Hood. (http://www.velonews.com/news/fea/7598.0.html). Disgraced time trialist David Millar, who admitted to taking the banned substance EPO on three separate occasions, could return to Tour de France racing as early as 2006.

The wrinkle? The Court of Arbitration for Sport is pondering a new rule that would mandate any rider found guilty of doping would have to serve a time equal to their original racing ban on a continental team before returning to a pro team.

Hood notes that many might complain the additional time is unfair punishment, but fans fed up with cycling's tarnished image from all the drug scandals could just as easily argue that the harder the line on doping the better.

Millar lost both his win in the 2001 Vuelta and the 2003 World Time Trial Championships for EPO use.

Fear and Loathing at the NY Times

2005-02-22T06:46:00.000-08:00

As suspected yesterday, the New York Times misstated Hunter S. Thompson's birth date and age, prematurely aging him two years at the time of his death. Here is the correction from today's Times:

• An obituary of the writer Hunter S. Thompson in some late editions yesterday misstated his year of birth and his age. Public records show his birth date as July 18, 1937, not 1939, making him 67, not 65. A more complete obituary (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/22/books/22thompson.html?oref=login) is available online today. (Registration at the NY Times is required.)

Just for the record, the mistake wasn't only "in some late editions,'' but also on the Times' Website all day.

ReLit Awards long list

2005-02-21T11:49:00.000-08:00

And the long list is...well, long.

Hard to believe, but the ReLit Awards is now in its fifth year. Run by Newfoundland author Ken Harvey (perhaps best known for including samples of his own flesh in a limited run of his book, Skinhound), the ReLits pay tribute to books from independent Canadian publishers.

This year jurors include novelist Paul Quarrington and short story author Margaret Gunning.

Among the 30 long list nominees for a short story collection are John Metcalf, Chris Gudgeon, and Alexandra Leggat. Notables among the 32 novelists vying for a prize are Leo Furey, Bill Gaston, Natalee Caple, Stephen Henighan and Ray Smith.

The poets top out at 51 and include: Bill Bissett, Keith Garebian, Aislinn Hunter, Steven Heighton and Jan Zwicky.

For those who count those kinds of things, ECW ( http://www.ecwpress.com/home.htm) and Turnstone (http://www.turnstonepress.com/) lead the publishers, with six nominations each.

The shortlists will be announced in mid-May and the winners are announced at bonfire beach parties in Newfoundland and British Columbia in late June.

No word on a rain date....

Hunter S. Thompson - 1937-2005

2005-02-21T08:55:00.000-08:00

What a kick in the head that was to wake up this morning and read the news.

"My life has been the polar opposite of safe, but I am proud of it and so is my son, and that is good enough for me. I would do it all over again without changing the beat, although I have never recommended it to others. That would be cruel and irresponsible and wrong, I think, and I am none of those things.

"Whoops, that's it, folks. We are out of time. Sorry. Mahalo." - from Hunter S. Thompson's introduction to Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century (2003).

Incidentally, the NY Times is reporting Thompson's birth as 1939, so far the only media outlet to do so. Either every other journalist screwed up or the Times will be running a correction. Still, the paper has an excellent package of articles, including reviews, photos, a book excerpt and an interview, up at: http://www.nytimes.com/indexes/2005/02/21/books/authors/index.html?8dpc (Registration required).

Let's hope Thompson is somewhere around heaven when the drugs start to take hold....