Sore Body on a Calm Saturday

Speedskating is a very hard sport. It's that way for top athletes, and it certainly is hard when you first get back on the ice in the fall. I felt sore and tired the whole week after a short hour of some single laps at Amsterdam's Jaap Edenbaan.I suppose it didn't help that it was windy on Monday and that after eight years at the indoor rink in Milwaukee I'm not used to skating with wind. I could not believe the way my legs felt climbing the railroad bridge near Weesp on Wednesday morning (Tuesday morning I had taken it easy because of the icy conditions). So I was happy this morning with the calm conditions. There was some wind, and it was in my face most of the way out to Lage Vuursche, for example along the Loenderveense Plas, but it wasn't bad, although it still took some effort to keep the spedometer above 17 (required speed to get to the restaurant right at the 10 am opening time). It was mid- to high 30s, and on the way home the sun started pushing through the cloudcover to the point where we could detect our shadows on the ground. I was comfortable in a jacket (two more layers underneath), thick (though not yet the insulated) tights, balaclava, lobster gloves, and winter shoes (no covers). The investment in these SIDI winter shoes a few years ago is really paying off now. They already made winterriding in Milwaukee more feasible, but these days on the commute to Amsterdam, I really never have to worry about cold or wet feet. The ride back was friendly and easy, and the wind was at my back once again the last 11 miles along the Vecht river. It's a great privilege indeed to be able to do this almost every week.

Highly Recommended: The Dirty Dozen

Pittsburgh's Danny Chew's ride like no other, traditionally the Saturday after Thanksgiving. If you're in the neighborhood of Pittsburgh and have a 39x28 (or lighter) handy, this is highly recommended, at least if you don't mind a few hills. The Dirty Dozen takes all day and goes over the thirteen steepest climbs in the Pittsburgh metropolitan area, where there is lots, lots to choose from. It's a race up every hill, neutral in between, and they wait for everyone at the top of the climb. Be glad it's not the 1980s, when most of them were cobbles and the Dirty Dozen code of honor basically mandated 42x24 gearing. Having done the ride twice, I can't imagine how they did that. Look, for example, at Canton Avenue, certified as the world's steepest street, where you need a good running start and then have to shift up flawlessly and maintain a straight line; if you start swerving only a little bit, you're lost. Sycamore Street, of the old Thrift Drug Classic days, is one of the easier ones on the list. Here's a YouTube clip from the last hill, Flowers-Tesla in Hazelwood, last year--you can find more by searching for "Dirty Dozen Pittsburgh" on YouTube. One of these days I'm going to fish hard for a Thanksgiving invitation at a Pittsburgh friend's home, so that I can also do a third Dirty Dozen, and get my name on Danny's list of people with three or more Dirty Dozens under their belt. (If I had a lot of money, I might well go back every year). If you go this weekend, get there early, because with a forecast of 43 degrees and sunny skies there promise to be over 100 people at the Washington Boulevard Swan'Odrome gathering place.

Stretching Pinochet

In an ad in the current New York Review of Books, Basic Books goes a little overboard trying to sell Heraldo Muñoz's The Dictator's Shadow: Life Under Augusto Pinochet, A Political Memoir: "Augusto Pinochet was the most important Third World dictator of the Cold War, and perhaps the most ruthless." He was important, but especially to Chile, and he was a bastard. Still, the "most important" of them all? We'd have to place China outside of the Third World, for starters, but then would still be left with figures such as Pol Pot, Mobutu, Syngman Rhee, Suharto, a whole series of fellow tyrants in the Western hemisphere, to say nothing of Middle East tyrants such as the Shah, Khomeini, Saddam Hussein, Hasaf Al Assad--the list goes on. I'm sure Muñoz's book is a valuable contribution to the historiography of Cold War Chile, and of U.S. intervention in Latin America and the wider Third World. This kind of sales job, however (how does one define "important" in this case anyway?), says more about the political position of the publisher than the Cold War in the Third World. And let me hasten to repeat: Pinochet was most certainly a bastard. And let me also hasten to add: the U.S. role in his coming to power and Washington's support for his regime was certainly also misguided, to say the least.

Daniel Ortega Doesn't Change Much,

and now many of his comrades-in-arms are beginning to see the light. When I returned to my graduate education in 1992 after a visit to Nicaragua during which a friend and I had interviewed Nicaragua's former president, one teacher was not impressed. "He's a tyrant!" was his response to the picture of Ortega and I shaking hands. I should still have the picture somewhere, but I'll admit it's not in a frame, and maybe in part that's due to my teacher's response to what I thought was mainly a coup (after all: at the time I didn't speak one word of Spanish--my friend, and an American free-lance journalist who was also in the interview, did all the talking; at the time I believed I understood about 25% of what was being said). The man indeed is a little dictator, and he's proving it during his new tenure as his country's president to the point where he is now losing prominent, long-standing members of what in recent years has already been a truncated Sandinista party. First he alienates large sections of his movement (which go on to found their own political movement), now he's losing people from those who decided to stick with him. Back during the 1970s and 1980s there was a clear, and not terribly uplifting, U.S. role in Nicaraguan events, one that to an extent explained some of the less than democratic policies Ortega and the Sandinistas pushed through. What's interesting about this week's article is the absence of any mention of a U.S. role. Sadly, Nicaraguans seem to be inflicting most of their ongoing, apparently never-ending misery on each other, without much help from the outside; and sadly, a deluded, washed-up Cold War revolutionary, one who should have retired a long time ago, is doing a lot of the damage.

Wintry Riding

No coffee ride, this weekend, because on Friday the weather turned a little violent (very strong winds, temperatures down into the mid-30s, and regular snow and hail showers during which the winds got even stronger), and on Saturday it was still a little iffy. We could have gone, Saturday morning, but would almost certainly have run into a snow or hail shower or two, and the wind would still have been pretty fierce. I wasn't that eager anyway, because for a variety of reasons I managed to ride to the city and back last week on four consecutive days. Eight hours on the bike: not bad for mid-November. Today the Sunday group did its traditional mountainbike loop through Lage Vuursche (indeed, the old Vuursche Boer again--but their applie pie, and their service, really is always excellent, so why change?). In order to ride, I had to prepare the old tractor, my red Trek 920 which I bought used at the end of 1995 at Pittsburgh Pro Bicycles (then still on Murray) because in that December month I rather suddenly really needed a snow bike. I also took it on many epic mountainbike rides with Pittsburgh Masters Velo Club through two of Pittsburgh's great parks: Schenley and Frick, which both offer a great variety of challenging single track trails and easier, wider stuff. If we concluded these rides at the old slag heaps overlooking the Monongahela River (now sadly sacrificed to development projects), we got an original "triple crown" ride (of course still completed at the 61C on Murray). In 1996, during a semester in Leipzig, Germany, I took the Trek, newly fitted with slick tires, for my city bike. But on Sunday mornings, I'd use it for a 2-3 hour road ride, to the southeast of the city, through towns like Altenhain and Brandis. Barren, windy, rides. The past eight years, the Trek has exclusively served as snow bike, to get me to work when there was too much snow to ride the skinny tires. This past winter, Milwaukee's second snowiest on record, it saw more duty that its owner cared for, and there were days the snow really was too thick to ride through. On those days, my little 2 mile commute took me half an hour or so, and I'd usually fall off a couple of times (not a real problem in the thick snow). The other week, I remounted the slick tires for the first time since Leipzig, and today we had a fine, muddy ride through various woods and heathlands. Nothing that was difficult technically, but there were quite a few places where it was icy, even on the packed-down dirt trails in the woods. It took me about an hour altogether to clear bike, rider, and clothing, but it was worth it.

Russia, Georgia, and NATO: Go Slow

Anne Applebaum, too, emphasizes how the Georgia-Russia story is complicated, certainly more complicated than "good" versus "evil" (regardless of whom you'd call good, or justified in his conduct here). She doesn't directly discuss the issue of possible NATO membership of Georgia, but there seems little doubt as to where she stands on that, given her conclusion:

In the long term, the Georgians need to choose a leader who can promote true political and economic stability. Until then, Western leaders should support Georgian democracy—not particular Georgian democrats—and prepare a unified response to the Russian military escapades to come. And while the propaganda battle rages, they must stay on the sidelines.
Premature, at best. And it raises the question: if there may be other ways for the West ("unified"--good luck with that) to respond to Russian military escapades, where does this leave NATO as the central security framework for an expanding transatlantic community? Forecasting eventual Georgian membership in the alliance, as most Western leaders did last summer, does not seem to be helpful here. It's nothing new to say this, but it appears that the further East NATO goes, the more it becomes a cause for trouble, instead of the stabilizing factor it is designed to be. This is ironic, because from an East European perspective, the main benefit of NATO membership is to deter Russia from trying to impose its will on what used to be its sphere of influence. Paradoxically, both could hold: Russia is probably more circumspect (though not without means of applying pressure) in its dealings with the Baltic states because of their membership in the alliance, but the expansion of NATO into the Baltic region has also made Russia more difficult to deal with on a range of issues. Meanwhile, the other reason for NATO expansion (encourage the development of open societies in formerly communist countries, or, expanding the democratic transatlantic community) can be seen as having worked fairly well. Of course, there are plenty of people who would argue that this latter goal can also be achieved through the EU's eastward expansion alone; although I'm not sure if a majority among them can be found in Eastern Europe, or whether Russia doesn't view EU expansion as a hostile act also. So it keeps coming back to relations with Russia. And I'm afraid there are no clear answers. Obviously we don't want to give Russia veto power over everything the West (EU/NATO) tries to do in Eastern Europe, in part because Russia's objections to the region's westernization derive from the fact that Russia's rulers see westernization as a threat to their power base at home (there's your Cold War parallel for the day). On the other hand, Russia is there, it's important (it's getting colder now in Europe, and we need their natural gas), and we're not going to go to war with it over places like Georgia, no matter how admirable parts of its democratization have been. Still, it really does appear that further NATO expansion (also into Ukraine) had better be kept on the back burner for the foreseeable future.

Russia, (Georgia), and the West--the Other Perspective

It comes from New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristoff, who just visited Georgia. It's a pretty convincing argument for making the Georgia situation less central to relations with Moscow (which is not the same as going back to business-as-usual with Putin and his gang). In his conversations with Georgians (journalists, for example), Kristoff was able to confirm that Georgia is still a ways off from being a genuinely open society (which would be one requirement for EU and NATO membership). And he makes a compelling argument that NATO membership would be exactly the wrong thing, not only for the West, but also for Georgia itself.

Europe and Russia

As expected, now that it has gotten around to it, the Wall Street Journal doesn't have kind things to say about "Europe's" decision to resume the talks with Russia about a comprehensive cooperative agreement, talks suspended last summer because of the invasion of Georgia. John Vinocour in today's International Herald Tribune is equally scornful of French president Sarkozy's "leadership" of the EU. One trait the two pieces have in common: how Russia plays with the Europeans the way a cat plays with a dead mouse.

A Very Fine Commute

If your normal departure time is so early that you still need lights, run into packs of school kids, and need an extra pair of eyes to survive the intersection of your bikepath with the massive and reckless foot traffic behind the Amsterdam Central Station, then a day like today is another world. Sunny, calm, cool but not cold--and I only needed to get on my way around 9:30. The road along the Vecht was quiet (as always), bright, and smooth; getting through Weesp was a breeze; standing up on the little climb up the railroad bridge outside of Weesp was a nice (albeit too short) lung-opener; and the bikepath alongside the Amsterdam Rijnkanaal was pretty empty. There were boats on the canal, which always makes it interesting; but in the city, there were very few bikes, and even fewer pedestrians behind the train station. I was sad to have to end my ride after 50-55 minutes and look forward already to the ride home in a couple of hours. Next up in commuting land: I'll bring my giant motorcycle chain lock to the city the next time I come in on the train, so that I don't have to carry any lock or cable with my any more (as I've been doing until now).

It's Saturday, This Must Be The Coffee Ride

And it was, the second week in a row. One more time, and we'll have a tradition needing to be maintained. Another mild, dry Saturday, another moderate southwesterly wind; only today was just about completely overcast. The sun did try to peek through between Tienhoven and the Vecht on the way home (which was very nice), but that was about it. Having learned last week how close Lage Vuursche really is to Nederhorst den Berg, I added two small detours to get the first part of the ride to last an hour (instead of 40-45 minutes). Near Kortenhoef, I took the Moleneind, and after that rode through Loosdrecht. This early right turn also gets you away from the continuous car traffic on the highway to Hilversum. That's still a very pretty road, but the traffic ruins it a little. Then, at the Hilversum airport (there really is one), I took the little road tracing the airfield's perimeter, instead of the main road to Hollandsche Rading. Eventually, this little road also gets you there, but it's much prettier, and you hardly run into any moving cars at all. At the Vuursche Boer, I had seventeen miles--just like the route of the original coffee ride between Milwaukee's East Side and Fiddleheads in Thiensville. No Eendracht group this week at the restaurant, but on the way home I saw one team member. I was chasing him down, but just as I was about to catch up to him, he suddenly stopped at a little bridge to admire the view. Wonder what was up with that. The ride home ran through Maartensdijk, Westbroek, Tienhoven, and polder Bethune, where there's considerable opposition against plans to turn this farmland into a wetland (no more pumping to keep the water level low enough for farming and instead let it flood and allow nature to take its course). We decided that certainly if flooding the area would also eliminate our valued Middenweg, we would add our own original sign protesting the plan. Absolutely lovely final couple of miles home along the Vecht river. 38 miles exactly for the day, and I did look at the average speed this time: 17.2.

Juliana and Bernhard: The Cold War Did It

The Dutch monarchy (and the rest of the country) experienced a existential crisis during the 1950s, one that was resolved only after the intervention of the government. The episode has become known as the "Greet Hofmans Affaire" because of the influence the faith healer of the same name exercised on Queen Juliana. The traditional interpretation is that the semi-wacko queen had become the emotional and spiritual captive of full-on wacko Ms. Hofmans. But it appears the traditional interpretation needs correcting, and that Juliana's husband, the very independent Bernhard (playboy, chair of the notorious Bildenberg meetings, World Wildlife advocate, big game hunter, international business wheeler-and-dealer, among many other things) deserves much of the responsibility, together with the good old Cold War. Historian Cees Fasseur published a new study on this crisis this week, for which he has been able to draw (with Queen Beatrix's permission) on Juliana's and Bernhard's papers in the royal archives. Initial reactions and interviews earlier this week focused on the personalities involved, and in particular on the kind of marriage the royal couple had (see above, under "playboy" and "semi-wacko"). From the early discussions this week, one also got the impression that Ms. Hofmans's influence indeed was pernicious, and that many people at home and abroad wondered what on earth the queen might be thinking. As an example, people have often pointed to Juliana's address to a joint session of Congress in April 1952, a plea for international collaboration, especially in non-military fields, and an implicit rejection of the Cold War division of the world. Ultimately, it was Bernhard who brought things to a head, causing the Dutch government in 1956 to force the queen to break with Hofmans. And how could he not, one was inclined to ask. But today, the Volkskrant has a review of the book by writer and historian Anet Bleich (author herself of a new biography of 1970s prime-minister Joop den Uyl, who had to cope with a constitutional crisis too, the so-called Lockheed Affair--another case where Bernhard's behavior had crossed the line). In a balanced take on Fasseur's book, Bleich makes it all a little more complicated, or rather, she shifts the focus to Bernhard--and to the Cold War. Hofman's influence, Bleich argues, really wasn't as pervasive. Instead, between her and Juliana it was much more a meeting of minds, a shared concern about international developments such as the nuclear arms race, the danger of nuclear war (but also about the importance of development assistance to poor countries). Also, the two became friends because Juliana couldn't really count on her philandering husband for any kind of emotional bond (Bernhard habitually took his mistress on the royal family's skiing vacations and had her stay in the same hotel, to give one example). It was these two factors that pushed Bernhard into action (leaking things to the press, which eventually brought everything into the open, forcing the government to intervene): the fact that he was losing influence in the royal household and was even being challenged over his selfish conduct; and, most intriguingly, Juliana's political views, the way she managed to express them publicly, and how this deviated from what he, Bernhard, and most of conventional wisdom thought about international politics. The two can't be separated, so one can't really argue that the Cold War alone brought about a constitutional crisis in a NATO country in the mid-1950s. However, that this "Hofmans Affair" is a central episode in early Dutch Cold War history seems pretty clear now also. (This, and the fact that the Fasseur and the Bleich books need to go on my reading list).

Mitch Mitchell

The last one of the Jimi Hendrix Experience to die. What does this have to do with the Cold War? Well, there was a lot of great new music back then (the late 1960s) that fed off and interacted with the tumultuous events of the time (Vietnam; the counterculture), but to me no sound is as representative for the heady, ominous atmosphere back then as that of this "band of gypsys." Mitchell was only 62 (and yesterday in London there were still three World War I veterans at the annual commemoration services) but his passing still is a reminder that while the 1960s, Vietnam, the Cold War remain defining eras in millions of people's lives today, they're also becoming--not yesterday, but the-day-before-yesterday, as in: over and done with; history, in other words. I can't claim truly to have been a participant back then, but I do remember the times, and I guess all this makes me kind-of old too.

The Unchanging Western Alliance

One of my students this semester is doing an original project on the balance-of-payments crisis between the U.S. and Western Europe of the early 1960s, which in large part was about burden sharing in the defense of common interests. To say the least, the burdens back then were shared unevenly, to the considerable frustration of several U.S. administrations, not to mention Congress. Two other students are looking at the Middle East War of 1973, when European actions (or lack thereof) caused Henry Kissinger to comment: "I don't care what happens to Europe--I'm so disgusted." (This during what he himself had proclaimed as The Year of Europe). The Western Alliance is still here, bigger than ever, but as the Wall Street Journal argues today, not too much has changed in the burden sharing department. The paper talks about "the Continent's free-riding on U.S. security while criticizing the way that security is provided ..." That's fine as far as it goes, but in order really to sort out the issue today, one would have to take a closer look at the alleged common interests. They're there, just like during the Cold War, but exactly what they are (and how they ought to be promoted) seems much more complicated than it used to be. In proper academese: it's significantly more contested and contingent.

No Way to be a Hard Man

Today is the third consecutive work day that for some reason I've taken the train to the city. Also skipped the Sunday ride. This morning was the saddest case because hearing the rain hit the window at 6:30 and seeing much activity on the weather radar, I decided against riding in (we happen to have a car this week). I got my punishment almost immediately, as I had to sit in a traffic jam less than three miles into the drive to the train station. As if that wasn't enough, it hardly rained at all during what would have been my hour on the bike. I could have run into a shower or two, but nothing particularly horrible. How sad. I feel like Martin Sheen in the opening scenes of Apocalypse Now (every day I'm here in this hotel room, I'm getting softer; while every day Charlie, out there in the jungle, is getting tougher--or words to that effect: there's your Cold War angle for the day). I think I'm beginning to look fat too.

A United Europe

Minus Lithuania. The issue is resuming comprehensive talks with Russia about an entire set of ties, especially energy. This is not necessarily a good thing, in part because it comes amid fresh reports of Russian/Ossetian violations of cease fire agreements in Georgia. It's not that one should not talk to adversaries, if that's what Russia is right now, but it doesn't exactly strengthen one's negotiating position (weak already because of internal divisions and a dependency of Russian natural gas) when you come back to the negotiating table while the other side refuses fully to carry out agreements it made with you only a few months ago. Maybe the fact that winter is around the corner had something to do with this decision? More important, amid the financial and economic turmoil, doesn't Russia need a few things from Europe as well? I wonder if talks to explore the possibility of (real) talks could not have preceded this united action. Of course, for such talks, a united Europe probably could not have been assembled.

Coffee Ride!

Just got home from the first "meet-in-the-middle" coffee ride since arriving in Holland last August. If you're in Holland and happen to be reading this early Saturday afternoon: get out there, because it's a beautiful day (and it's not going to last). Left the house a little before nine, and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. High 40s, moderate south wind. The roads/bike paths were damp to wet, and they were scattered with leaves. In other words a perfect fall morning. I had forgotten how close our destination, Lage Vuursche, really is (only 14 miles), and got there about 20 minutes early. So I did an extra little loop where I got to watch a young dog off its leash in search of its owner lose its way, run into the busy Soestdijkerweg, and almost get run over by a car. The Lage Vuursche restaurants don't open until 10 am, so that's when we entered de Vuursche Boer (owned at one time, I learned, by the great Gerrie Knetemann) at the head, it turned out, of a steady stream of (mountain)bikers. One group was the team I joined back in September for one of their training rides on the road and may still join: de Eendracht of Loenen aan de Vecht. Didn't recognize any of the guys, although one or two looked vaguely familiar. They were gone again before I could walk over for a chat. We rode back together to the Vecht river by way of Maartensdijk, Achttienhoven (where this van Dijk family originates), Westbroek, and Tienhoven. There, the Utrecht delegation of one took a left, while the Nederhorst den Berg contingent took a right to ride the tailwind all the way home. 39 miles, and probably not even an 18 m/h average (you're not supposed to care during a coffee ride, just like you're not supposed to sweat, or take the chain off the small ring).

Live Blogging the President-Elect, 5

(9:08) What will he read in terms of presidential history (I think is the question) for guidance? Bland answer. Now the dog, equally bland, which is all good: he seems all business, real business.
(9:09) The state of U.S. intelligence? What's he going to say? He has to work with these people on a daily basis. He's had intelligence briefings, there's always room for improvement everywhere. Good thing he didn't say more.
(9:10) Tax policy? Overarching goal is helping people, stimulate economic growth.

And that's it. (9:11) So why did he do this? It was short, and as far as I was able to determine, there wasn't any news. I suppose he did this (and will continue to do so) because having won the election and with Bush on the way out, people will expect him to come out, even if he won't/can't say too much. Something notable was that on the issue of the stimulus package he said that this would be his first order of business "if no package is passed during the lame-duck session." That could also be read as pressure, intervention in the policy debate with the goal of moving things along. So I suppose increasingly he may take charge a little, without really taking charge ("we only have one president").
Well, I'd like to think about something else now. For starters I'd like to turn off CNN's talking heads. (9:17).

Live Blogging the President-Elect, 4

(9:02) Question on Iran. Iranian nuclear weapon still unacceptable, but he doesn't want to talk about it really yet ("I'm not the president")--no surprise.
(9:03) Does he expect problems with Bush during the transition? Not really.
(9:04) How fast on cabinet appointments? He'll be fast but deliberate, get it right--I'm sure he will, these are not small decisions. It's as with his own victory: at a time like this the psychological effect of personnel issues can be major.

Live Blogging the President-Elect, 3

Auto industry and its troubles is a focus (8:56), which makes sense--let's just wait and see whether the emphasis will be on forcing Detroit to produce more green automobiles, or on freeing them from certain union contract constraints (which Japanese automakers producing in the U.S., for example, do not have).
First question: he believes in the potential positive psychological effect of hitting the ground running in January (9:00), the potential power of presidential leadership.
Second question: stimulus package is essential--no real surprise, content, again, will be decisive.

Live Blogging the President-Elect, 2

He's reminding us that he's not the president yet. (8:54 Holland time) True, but as he says now himself, he's already on the job with a team, making plans (8:55)

Live Blogging the President-Elect

We just got the one minute warning for Obama's appearance at the podium for his first press-conference as president elect. Not that both my readers are constantly clicking their "refresh" button now, but "live blogging" an event is something I've seen others do, and I just happen to be sitting here with the tv on. Here he is--more soon.

For the Executive Summary ...

... of my op-ed this week, you can go to the Gelderlander. Slightly edited for use after the election, but still pretty much intact, it's also in the Brabants Dagblad.

Foggy Riding by the Canal

The past few days have been rather quiet and foggy, especially yesterday. Not great riding circumstances, except alongside the Amsterdam-Rijnkanaal. Riding by it several times a week, the canal and its ships ("binnenvaartschepen"-- inner-coastal cargo ships) are both endlessly fascinating and deeply familiar. My connection goes back to the time we moved to Weesp, in 1966. At that time, we could still see the canal from our second-story apartment, about half a mile away, the business district that would come to block our view a few years later not having been built yet. I remember my mom taking us swimming there--or at least watch construction workers go for a swim on their lunch breaks. They'd try to climb onto passing ships, ride along for a little ways before jumping (or being chased) off. Occasionally, my mom would let me in the water near the shore. When a ship passed, the current would pull you back, or forward, parallel to the shore--you'd be passing your group on the shore without having to swim. A little down the road from where we used to go, near Diemen, a older cousin and his friends had a rope tied to the freeway bridge with which they'd "Tarzan" themselves far into this water highway. These days, the traffic often is so heavy, that it's really not a place for swimming any more. But there are still days, just like in the 1980s when I would ride my bike here as a student, when, if they asked me what I want to be when I grow up, I'd say: "binnenvaartschipper" (skipper on one of those boats). I'm sure the reality isn't nearly as romantic as one imagines it from a distance. Speaking of distance: yesterday, in the fog, it was difficult to make out anything. Often, the first thing you'd notice was the sound of a bow pushing through the water. Looking over, all you could make out was a vague, dark shadow passing by. Tonight, visibility was a little better, but after dark in the calm weather the scene was still strangely quiet, almost intimate. (Especially because I wasn't sniffing and coughing and spitting too much any more: got over my cold without missing a ride!)

Read All About It 2

In case you're more partial to the other Holland (Zuid Holland), you can also find my piece on the Republican bind in het Leidsch Dagblad. (They've chosen to use the same picture as the Noord Hollanders).

Read All About It: The Republicans' Predicament

The paper of my own province, Noord Holland, has my piece today about the Republican Party's predicament. You have to be able to read Dutch (although it has one picture).

Why is it So Difficult to Vote?

This article by way of a colleague on how ex-pats have great trouble at times even to get a hold of a ballot, let alone getting it counted. The description here of how things (do not) function stateside is one concern people have about tomorrow. Sure, it's likely to be a turnout without precedent in living memory, but election day mechanics have been on the front burner now for almost eight years. Why do things not function more smoothly? Well, much has been done by many dedicated, hardworking officials and volunteers in many jurisdictions to improve things, so it's not inevitably going to be mayhem at the polls tomorrow. But part of the problems that remain is a lack of resources, ultimately caused by a reluctance of many Americans to pay the bill (that would be taxes) for a civilized society. So what you get instead is a country with many pockets (physical and metaphorical) of variations of something less than civilization. Most Americans do not seem to mind too much most of the time. Being somewhere else now, "civilized" Western Europe, I must say that it's nice, on the one hand, to have public things taken care of pretty well, generally speaking; on the other hand, there are those bills ...

Riding with a Cold

It can be done, as I demonstrated today on the Sunday ride, but it has to be done with care. I got comments at the coffee stop for wearing a balaclava (and full gloves, and booties) when the temperature was about 8 centigrade--mid-forties, in other words. But it made getting started (new winter starting time of 9 am) easier. I also was careful not to push it. Did my turns at the front, but my pulls weren't the longest or the hardest. Our leader, John, was back from his long summer weekends in the Limburg hills. It was my first Sunday ride with him, a legitimate former racer, on the ride, and it's clear we have a natural leader (in addition to a sponsor). John also seemed to have the best legs today. We were lucky with the weather: cool, but sunny, and little wind. This is not typical Dutch fall weather, but the guys were commenting how things are different these days from twenty years ago: the leaves stay on the trees longer, in part because there seem to be fewer fall storms also. Still, there were plenty of (wet) leaves on the ground, and there were many turns we took a little gingerly. It being November now, it was striking how many people have already switched to mountain bikes. My group, they mentioned today, has 6 degrees centigrade as a lower limit for the road bike. If it gets any colder, they take their mountain bikes and look for sheltered, off road routes to our regular coffee stop, de Vuursche Boer, in Lage Vuursche (a "town" with a very high Hans and Grethel content) where we have our own table (we think). The others shook their heads when I said that last winter in Milwaukee, I had lowered my road bike limit to about 12 Fahrenheit. It doesn't look like I'll have too much use for all my heavy winter gear from Wisconsin here. For one thing, if it gets to be 12, I'll definitely be skating the frozen canals and lakes instead of riding my bike. Today I got 46 miles, and I had no trouble with my cold. Not that it's gone, but it hasn't gotten any worse either.