No Credible Defense Against a Soviet Attack?

This was the conclusion of a British government report in the late 1970s, as reported on by the BBC today. The report seems to have been based primarily on a comparison of numbers (of bombers, missiles, air defense systems) on both sides, not, according to the BBC report, on actual capabilities or intentions. You can download the file from Britain's National Archives here, apparently for free. I'm busy doing that right now, but I won't be able to get to it right away, because there's real ice, lake ice, in Holland right now, and I have made plans to go check it out this afternoon. It looks like there will be lake and canal skating until at least New Year's Day. These opportunities don't come along so often any more, and my computer time is therefore going to be limited this week. (Just see that I got an error message from the National Archives--probably because of heavy traffic--hah! I'm off the hook for a probing analysis for now!).

Obama's Team, Obama's Policy?

This was the question for an op-ed in the papers of the GPD, last week: what, if anything do Obama's nominations for top positions in his administration tell us about his policies? The paper for our own region, the Gooi- en Eemlander, printed my piece yesterday, as I just saw at my brother's. They don't have it on their website, however, and I haven't seen in anywhere else yet either, so I can't link to it. The gist: Obama and his team will be interested in certain reforms, but they'll be limited in what they will be able to undertake by the current financial and economic crises, by the country's two or three wars (depending on whether you count the fight against Al Qaeda and similar groups as its own war, separate from those in Iraq and Afghanistan), and by Obama's determination (see the Rick Warren selection, among other things) really to be the president of all Americans--to be a real uniter, not a divider. The other thing we can see from the selection process so far is that the Obama administration should be extremely serious, deliberate, and professional. I forgot to include speculation that this might also mean that things will be a bit dull at times in Obama's Washington. But dull is not necessarily bad in government.

Inspection and Improvisation on the Coffee Ride

Friday it went below freezing, and the forecast is for below-freezing temperatures all week, next week. During the day it should stay cold also. So the talk in Holland (and other parts of the Netherlands) is all about skating--lake and canal skating, that is. For the time being, however, the East winds have brought us sunny skies and dry roads. A few degrees below freezing is nothing for a cyclist with eight years of Milwaukee under his belt (thankfully, it's still bearable for the Utrecht delegation also), and so I rode into a large, bright red sun this morning to get my Saturday meet-in-the-middle fix, but also to see how the ice was growing along the route. The ride was fine, and so, on the way home, were the legs; however, we still have quite a ways to go with the ice. Many small waters were still partly open, and everywhere the ice looked awfully precarious, maybe not even one centimeter. In several places it was strong enough to support a duck (or koet, as the case may be), but I don't see us out on real ice before Wednesday. I was first to enter De Vuursche Boer this morning and was sad to hear that the coffee machine (at least the part that makes the foamy milk) was still broken (it broke when Joan and I were there yesterday for a pancake, fortunately after our first "koffie verkeerd"). Putting a spoonful of whipped cream from my apple pie into my regular coffee saved the day. There was a new sign in the Polder Bethune, where inhabitants are trying to prevent the establishment of a wetland on what for many years has been farmland. It compared a polder without farmers to a red light district without prostitutes--not sure how many government minds that is going to change. Along the Vecht river there was a moderate headwind most of the way, but the cool conditions didn't keep several folks of my parents' generation from riding around without anything on their heads. I even suspect one grey-haired dude of looking funny at my balaclava.

It's 15.9 Miles

My commute between Nederhorst den Berg and the P.C. Hoofthuis at the Spuistraat and Raadhuisstraat in Amsterdam. Olaf and I did the ride this morning on quiet (though not deserted) roads. I pulled up all the way to the gate of my building, to see if the computer would move to 16.0, but it didn't. I'd still like to give myself 16 miles each way. Here's how: at the end of a ride I always round down (for example, at the end of last Saturday's coffee ride, I had 37.9 miles, but I have written down 37 for that day). So in the course of a year, I accumulate lots of change, so to speak, and I'd like to apply that to my daily commuting deficit of .2 miles. From now on, I'll add a little distance to each commute, so that this will no longer be necessary (on the way home, I'll do the Hinderdam--the road curving along the river to the left here, instead of the straight shot into town alongside the Spiegelweg--the road on the right). I hope this will be acceptable. To prove that Amsterdam is a real city, we found two cafes open near my building this Christmas morning at ten am, so we were able to turn this little jaunt into a coffee ride also.

Tough Commuter

That would not be me, these days. My last ride to Amsterdam was last Friday. I'm planning to do the ride tomorrow, on the winter Klein with computer, so that I'll finally know for sure how far it is (important for when I calculate my annual mileage on New Year's Eve). The tough commuter was at our open house, last weekend. She's Sabina, a former neighbor from the late 1970s and 1980s. From the old days I remember her always riding her bike to work in Amsterdam. She still does. We talked about the Wednesday a couple of weeks ago (the day of my crashes), and of course she had been out that day too. She had crash stories too, and she talked about them, and the resulting injuries, the way hard-core riders do: stuff that happens from time to time in circumstances that are challenging, even a little exciting, but certainly nothing to discourage one from riding. These days she rides an old, crappy bike to work, because there's no safe way to store a good bike. There's no shower at her current work site either, so she has devised ways to minimize the sweating on the way in (just wear one thin layer underneath your jacket so that you are just warm enough). And she has studied the weather patterns around here, discovering that there's often a dividing line near Weesp and the Amsterdam-Rijnkanaal (something I was wondering about this past fall), and also that in recent years rain showers have become more frequent in this part of the Netherlands. Not that this has kept her off the bike. She really always rides, also when she goes speedskating Monday mornings. Then, she rides the 11 miles to the Amsterdam oval, also if this time of year it means riding in the dark (another thing I haven't done yet). And she talks about all this in a very matter-of-fact way. No wonder, perhaps, that she's also the mother of a young woman who a couple of years ago was a national-level speedskater. No wonder, either, that she looks incredibly fit. You can find consistent bike commuters like her over here, but they are still pretty rare. Another model to emulate.

A New Cold War?

A reader writes:

I have to ask, only half jokingly, if the Cold War historians are waiting for a pivotal event to declare Cold War II retroactively, like the financial gurus have declared Recession 2008. It seems to me there are quite a few elements of a perfect storm on the Russian front! My non-nuanced predictions, launched from my armchair vantage point:
Putin emboldened by the new term limits, will become President after Medvedev resigns in the near future.
Russia will indeed take advantage of new legislation to start an incremental tightening of foreign access to citizens. (will I lose my new Russian Facebook friends?)
The EU, without the OSCE to hide behind, will waffle and stall on a MAP for Georgia, keeping NATO membership in limbo.
The incoming US administration will have to do some fast stepping when it comes to the bilateral relations the Bush administration forged with Saakashvili's administration; with the EU waffling, our bilateral relationship will start to look a unilateral one if we step up our presence in Russia's "sphere of influence".
Russia will continue to fast-track citizenship in Abkhazia and S. Ossetia, while the quality of life in those regions continues to decline due to rampant crime and corruption. then leverage an eventual take-over with a claim of protecting the majority of Russian citizens living in those regions.

For what it's worth...

I, of course, have all the answers. "A" new cold war between Russia and the West is quite possible. One could even say that it's already a fact, at least at a low level of intensity. However, "the" Cold War was about the shape of the post-World War II world, about what would take the place of Nazism/Fascism, Japanese militarism, and (European) colonialism. The U.S. and the Soviet Union represented what turned out to be mutually exclusive visions for the future (indeed, of where history was headed), and each felt it could leave the other with no new gains, least of all perhaps in the de-colonizing "third world." Each also felt that long-term, it ought to work to undermine the influence of the other. It seems that today, Russia's ambitions are more limited. Partly because of that, the West isn't as united as in the 1940s and '50s, or as anxious about where for example developing countries will go in their politics. One could argue that on the issue of so-called "failed" and "outlaw" states, Russia and the West still have more in common than things that divide them. Both face potential terrorist violence, for example, and neither side wants to see nuclear capabilities fall into the hands of terrorists or unstable regimes. Russia's traditional sphere of influence seems to be the major bone of contention, in part because of the way the West has extended its influence there since 1990. That's an issue that is easier (not: easy) to manage than a deeply ideological conflict about the future of the world. Unfortunately, it will probably mean no tight, formal ties between the West (certainly not NATO) and Georgia or Ukraine; and it could also mean (because of the way Putin and his posse continue to tighten their hold on the place) losing a few Russian Facebook friends.

Dirty Dozen Results are In

Check it out at Danny Chew's website, with photos and links to YouTube videos and all. I haven't been everywhere (man), but I'll still go out on a limb and say there's nothing like it in the world.

The Coffee Ride and the Importance of Routines

Immediately following, we had an open house for old friends, and given that I'd been gone all morning, I was certainly required to help out--and quick. I should (and do) consider myself privileged to have been allowed to ride at all. It was a good morning for a ride. I rained overnight, but behind the showers milder air moved in, and when I stepped outside this morning, the gloves and hat could stay in my pockets. I can't remember the last time I rode without gloves; it could easily have been back in October. The wind was out of the West, maybe Northwest, so I had it easy, which was good, because my legs aren't the same since I've been to the speedskating oval a few times. "Ice legs," and they don't move as smoothly. What's there to report? The guy with the dog, near the Hilversum airfield wasn't there! What's the world coming to when people start breaking their routines? What was there, as every week (for sure), was the "stormbaan" (obstacle course--don't know the exact translation) at the adjacent Marine complex. Around 1980 I spent a couple of days there, being checked out to see whether for my military service I could join the elite outfit. Because of mild near-sightedness I got rejected (and instead ended up contributing to the Western victory in the Cold War driving a gasoline truck built in about the same year I was born). I didn't have to do the "stormbaan" at that time, but did get to do it during basic training. It's not an easy thing to do, especially not when carrying all your gear, but it doesn't bring up any trauma either, riding by the course every week--on the contrary. Few cyclists at the "Boer." The two elderly ladies who always come in for coffee did show up (albeit too late, so that they had to be at a different table from their usual one, right next to ours; it was upsetting, but I could handle the change). On the way back, outside of Maartensdijk: two approaching, grey haired cyclists. As we got closer, one got behind the other to let us pass. When we did and I looked over, I saw it was my dad's cousin, Gert, and his wife Roelie, who have lived in nearby Achttienhoven/Westbroek for a very long time and must be in their early eighties now. The last time I had seen them was at my dad's funeral, four years ago. Gert fainted there, but look at him now. There was some wind, but there they were, at least a couple of miles from home, perhaps on their way to visit someone, or maybe just to go to the store. They're former farmers, together have raised a family of ten or so, and they (obviously!) have kept to their routines. I'm going to follow their example.

First Time Ever: Freek Disappoints

The other night I saw the latest show of Dutch comedian and theater star, Freek de Jonge. I've been a fan since the 1970s, when he made waves as a leading member of Neerlands Hoop. They came up during the late 1960s, were of the left (the thinking left), which meant critical of the United States and its war in Vietnam, among many other things. (Did I mention they were also a killer rock band? Well, they were). During the 1970s, one could say in hindsight, they became prominent representatives of a push-back from below against the Cold War order, especially its disregard for human rights (whether these were violated in communist countries or under right-wing dictatorships). In 1978 they launched a campaign for a Dutch boycott of the soccer world cup in Argentina, where a right-wing military dictatorship was busy jailing and killing its political opponents. Today, even a member of the victorious Argentine squad argues that the tournament should not have been held, and I wish I had been more sympathetic to Freek's campaign. (Instead, as a seventeen-year old, I was rooting very hard for the Dutch team, and I remember being heartbroken when they lost the final match against Argentina, certainly not staying for the party Jurriaan van Wessem had organized at his house). Not too long after that, Freek struck out on his own, putting together a long series of brilliant one-person shows. As far as I've been able to track his career the past 20 years (I own a lot of it on cd), he has continued to push himself and his audience in programs that are invariably original (though usually addressing similar themes) and searching, not to mention extremely funny. Just last spring I came away very impressed from De Laatste Lach: after all these years, and still dealing with his familiar themes (let's call it: the meaning of life) he continues to make it interesting. But not this week with De Limiet. Freek himself said it best in the current VPRO gids: he can do a show like this on auto-pilot. Unfortunately, it showed. He seems to have written the thing on auto-pilot, and even a performer of his ability could not really take this material (just sports--a mistake, in hindsight) beyond its very obvious limits. After the break there was a musical part unrelated to the first half, which gave the whole evening a slapped-together kind-of feel. It wasn't a disaster, it just wasn't up to Freek's own high standards. If you're in Holland, you can see for yourself: tonight, Friday, they'll show De Limiet on tv; next Friday, it will be De Laatste Lach.

Buy a Newspaper--again

A blogger at The Economist also comments (as do many others, these days). I think the central weakness in this otherwise useful post is this:

I'm content to let many of the nation's newspapers go belly up, but I'm nervous about a world where many cities are entirely without a few seasoned reporters, who make it their business to ask hard questions and keep an eye on those in need of accountability.

A few reporters--that's not going to do it; just like investigative reporting alone is not what makes a good news outlet.

In the meantime, the Detroit Free Press has announced its changes: they will only deliver the paper (which they'll continue to put out every day) to subscribers three days a week. The rest of the week, subscribers can access the entire paper on-line. Because leafing through a newspaper in front of a computer is so much fun, I'm sure that's going to boost the Free Press' readership quickly (I'm being sarcastic here). Of course, the paper had to do something, and this may well be the least painful way to address dropping revenues, especially from ads. For advertisements to go back up again, people will have to want to get the actual paper because, as Felix Salmon at Portfolio.com argues,

Newspapers are, first and last, devices for delivering ads to readers. It's the ads which account for all the profits, not the cash coming from subscribers or people who buy their paper at the newsstand.

Salmon then proceeds to argue that "news itself is free," always has been. This is fine as far as it goes, but the cut-backs at many papers suggest that it doesn't go very far. I'm not an economist by a long shot, but don't ads also pay for newsrooms, reporters, correspondents, distribution networks? The fact remains that papers (and other news outlets) need real income to sustain real, professional news gathering operations. Real income may come from ads more than anything else, but without readers willing to get the actual paper, the ads aren't going to be there either. They will go somewhere else, for example to websites. But I don't think anybody is arguing that news organizations can maintain their newsroom strength on the basis of internet advertising alone? If they could, then most of this discussion would be about a minority of old-fashioned people such as myself not wanting to spend even more time in front of the computer. But I don't think that's the case. Look at the quality of information provided for free on the internet. If it's any good, it's usually backed by a professionals , often a traditional news organization. Because there are many other ways to get "information" on-line, it's doubtful enough people are going to be willing to pay for access to the really solid sites. Look also at user tolerance for ads: it's much easier to put up with ads (i.e. consider their message) in a paper than on a website, especially if the ad rolls out over the story you're about to read. So print media should remain important venues for all kinds of advertisers also. The bottom line for me remains that as citizens we have choices, and that, on balance, a responsible choice is to spend a little money on a regular basis buying the product from a credible news organization. The easiest, most effective way to do this remains buying a newspaper. It's not expensive, it's good for your brain, and it's essential to democracy.

• 
  

Buy a Newspaper

Every day, as a rule, would you, please? Either that, or subscribe. Papers everywhere are having difficulties holding on to readers, and in Holland there are calls for government support for newspapers to ensure a diverse and vibrant array of news media. Better, of course, would be if responsible citizens were to make that unnecessary. You know, all those folks who believe that a democratic society with informed citizens would be a pretty good idea? The internet is great, but you can't have a genuinely informed citizenry without lots of professional journalists looking into things, being experts at things, full time. Papers can put material on line, but if we would all rely on the free stuff there, they could not maintain their staffs, their networks of correspondents. Same with relying on tv news. And don't get me started on those free rags you can find at all Dutch train stations these days ("readers" of those things: please don't think you're reading "the paper" every day; instead, how about feeling offended by the crap these things have to offer?). It's a pretty damn good value also, everything you get from a real paper in return for your buck or Euro-twentyfive or less. Can most people get by most days without one? Sure. However, for civil society really to work, you need a lot of people doing the right thing--this is one of those right things. If you want to see the writing on the wall, look at what's about to happen with the Detroit Free Press, "on guard for 177 years" and the Detroit News: Detroit's major dailies will no longer deliver a regular paper every day--it's just one example.

Cold? Milwaukee is Cold!

As I got on the bike this morning, a fading moon hung over one horizon while a big orange sun was climbing out from behind the other. It was a few degrees below freezing--with iced-over ditches and small canals--but most regular, transportation-type cyclists of all genders and ages rode around without anything on their heads, and sometimes also without gloves. Headwind the whole way to Lage Vuursche, and on several stretches the low bright sun was right in my face. In short, an absolutely beautiful morning (and nothing like the snow-bound, single digits Milwaukee survival tours). In Loosdrecht I passed several Eendracht guys on the way to their weekly off-road date, and on the pretty road by the Hilversum airfield the guy I always see there with his dog nodded for the first time. The roads and bikepaths were dry almost everywhere, but you still had to look out for little patches of frost, or for frozen puddles. At the Vuursche Boer most of the regulars were there, also among the waitstaff. The Utrecht delegation had chosen the off-road option, which meant that I did more of the second leg on my own. Tailwind almost the whole way, which in Westbroek helped me stay ahead of a tractor pulling a big flat thing. I passed him in the middle of town to be done with the noise and the smell, but then he started picking up more speed. On the crosswind section before Tienhoven I actually had to put my head down a little and work to maintain the required speed of 23 m/h to fight him off. That it doesn't have to get too much colder for lake and canal skating to become feasible I realized along a canal in the Polder Bethune: the canal was only partly frozen, but on one section the ice was strong enough to support a swan. What can I say about the tailwind section home along the Vecht river? The same as always: these coffee rides are really something.

Two Girls on a Moped

A slow one. I saw them stopped early tonight near the Schellingwouderbrug, where you can exit a little park onto the dike between the Amsterdam Rijnkanaal and the Nieuwe Diep. As they got going (no helmets, lots of trendy wool stuff around their necks and heads) I passed them thinking that if they managed to pick up a little speed, I could get a nice draft off them. They did catch up to me, and as they did they asked ("Sir"--I even look old now with a helmet and a balaclava) if I knew where "Steigereiland" was. I asked if it was in the new area, IJburg, that's still being built beyond the canal in the IJmeer, and they said yes. So I pointed them to the bicycle bridge across the canal 500 meters or so up the road. They could get to IJburg there. They thanked me and accelerated past, but slowly enough for me to get that draft. We probably weren't even doing 25, but I still enjoyed my first moped-paced stretch on the commuter, with its fenders, mudflap, 28 wide tires, rack, and what have you.

Vietnam War Further Into History

This happened yesterday, in Louisiana, where in a traditionally Democratic district (the 2nd) voters sent the first Vietnamese-American to Congress. Anh "Joseph"Cao fled Saigon in 1975 as a young child on a transport plane while his father, an officer in the South Vietnamese army, stayed behind, eventually in a prison camp for 16 years. He ran as a Republican, and he benefited from several special circumstances surrounding this election (delayed because of Hurricane Gustav), in particular the indictment of the long-serving incumbent William J. Jefferson, but also the low turnout. Still, when you read his life story, you can see why people trust him, and it's hard not to hear that phrase in the background, at once a cliche and very fitting, especially in 2008: only in America ...

Russia: Bad News Bear

I finally finished last week's special report in The Economist on Russia. It tries to end on a hopeful note: "Historically, Russia has often demonstrated an ability to take unexpected turns, whether for good or ill. ... The danger lies in its unpredictability. Yet that may also be a reason for hope." The problem is that the series of thorough articles on issues such as the growing power of the state in the economy; corruption; the not-so-independent judiciary (guess who has undue influence?); depressing demographic trends; xenophobia; and the Caucasus--the entire bunch, really, offers very little to base one's hopes on for a more benign Russian future. The depressing prospects domestically and in foreign policy are captured at the end of the article on demographics, immigration, and xenophobia: "Dmitry Rogozin, a nationalist politician who built his campaign for parliament in 2003 on anti-immigrant rhetoric, is now Russia's ambassador to NATO. On his office wall hangs a portrait of Stalin." Angry, frustrated places, just like angry, frustrated people, do not tend to be nice to themselves or others. What makes this especially complicated for the "West" (that is to say: "Europe" and North America) is that according to the same report "Russia's nationalism defines itself in relation to America and the West ..." It matters a great deal, therefore, how the West treats Russia, and the Economist also reports that "many Russian liberals argue that Western policy towards Russia has helped to make the country more nationalistic." [emphasis mine]: U.S. abrogation of the ABM Treaty; missile defense in Central Europe; NATO expansion; recognition of Kosovo. Once conclusion could be that the West should avoid anything that will make Russia mad. However, going that route (with all the cost it will entail for Western interests elsewhere) does not guarantee by a long shot a more benign Russian policy. What does the experience of the Cold War teach us here? The way a country is run--by whom and in the name of what--matters a great deal; real change will have to come, therefore, from within; outsiders can do some limited things to help (vis-a-vis the population, but sometimes also by working with the regime), but their actions will always have to be based on a realistic assessment of how, in this case, Russia is run--by whom and in the name of what.

Treacherous Ride, Update 2

Cold War and Cycling: new developments in my issue with the city of Amsterdam over last Wednesday's iced-over bridges that cost me two bike crashes--the second also resulting in one or two bruised ribs. I just hear that Het Parool printed my letter in yesterday's paper. I wasn't in Amsterdam yesterday, and the only day the paper makes it to our village is Saturday. But the person who saw it will mail the paper. I can't find any place on the paper's site for letters-to-the-editor, so I can't link to it either. Given that the city claims that crews had been out all night, it's possible that I'm off in my indictment. I've talked to other people who think it possible that when roads are icing over, salt put down, say, in the middle of the night, could be gone by early morning. I still think that's hard to believe in the circumstances last week: snow and sleet coming down in the evening and beginning to stick, followed by below-freezing temperatures. How could salt wash away in these conditions? In any case, while running is very painful at the moment, riding is possible. It's the holidays (St. Nicholas) and we could not fit in a coffee ride this morning, but in the afternoon I did my summer loop to Hilversum to get a Herald Tribune. It's a little ride for the summer, when the Sunday rides are long and manly, "meet-the-middle" coffee rides out of season, but you still need a little something on Saturday. Easy riding, without pulling on the handlebars really isn't so bad. I even took my foot out of the pedal at one point to deal with a chasing dog (that's when he finally backed off, before I could practice the survival skill [that would be kicking the animal before it can jump up and bite you] learned during my days in Southeastern Ohio). With a partly couldy sky with lots of light and dark cloud action, and with the season's low sun, there were some spectacular vistas along the way (Horstermeer, 's-Graveland, Spanderswoud, past my deceased high school Het Nieuwe Lyceum, past the old VARA building, and back by way of Loosdrecht, Loenen, and Vreeland for a grand total of 22 miles).

Treacherous Ride, Update

Piet is o.k.; when I reached him last night he said that if he had known how bad it was, he would not have taken the bike yesterday. Last night I kept reiterating my scorn for the city salt crew's late appearance until my wife finally told me to do something about it. Call the city, write the newspaper, but don't just complain about it at home. Nothing is going to change that way. So at 11 last night I e-mailed a letter-to-the-editor to the Amsterdam paper Het Parool about the whole affair, suggesting that they follow Milwaukee's example and anticipate this stuff. (In an article in today's paper, city officials claim crews had been out all night but that there was just no way to keep up). Injury update: hip and elbow are hardly worth mentioning, but the rib cage will continue to be a problem for a while, I'm afraid. Today I was running late for my train (indeed, I took a riding day off) and I tried to jog a little on the way to the train station. I'm not saying that was impossible, but I will say that it was so painful that I went back to walking immediately.

Obama and a New New Deal

My take this week in the papers of the GPD (in Dutch), for example the Brabants Dagblad, yesterday. There are many significant differences (for example: the current crisis really doesn't compare in sheer popular misery and fear to 1932-1933), but what both men have in common is the determination to restore the bond between the people and their government, to reestablish government as a central (and: competent) force in society, working to make sure that the nation's founding principles have meaning for all citizens.

Treacherous Ride

It snowed/sleeted last night, and then it went below freezing. So I wasn't sure if it would be wise to ride in today. This country is a swamp, and things don't dry out here; instead, they, including the roads and bike paths, always seem to be damp. But the first thing I saw when I looked out the window at 6:30 was my friend Piet riding by the house. Piet has been doing the commute to Amsterdam for many years, summer and winter. The only time he doesn't ride is when it's icy, because he really can't afford a fall. So seeing him ride by settled it for me. But it turned out that it was very sketchy all the way into the city, in part because over here, they don't send the salt trucks out every time there's a possibility of snow or ice. I made it into the city without too much trouble, but then went down twice in a row without having time to catch myself. It was as if someone just ripped the bike out from under me. Both falls were on my left side, on the last two bridges on the Singel gracht before my building. They just looked wet, but in reality they were iced over. In the shower just now I could see I have two nice bruises, one on my elbow and one on my hip. In the second crash, I also poked myself in the ribs, and that could well be a third bruise. When I get home tonight I'll have to call Piet, see what he was thinking. I hope he kept it upright all the way this morning.

[Evening update:] At 11:00, after my first class, I went for my cup of coffee at the corner place, which is right at the second place I went down three hours earlier. And guess what: the salt truck had showed up! I think they had just put the salt down, probably on an ice-free surface, given that the sun had been up for three hours and the temperature had risen well above freezing. I guess it's asking too much for the city to have these crews out before rush hour. No word from Piet yet, maybe I'll try to call him one more time. Bruises not too bad, although the rib cage is sensitive.