Motorcycle season - sounds like "duck season." Or, "deer season." It means, pilgrims are'a gonna die Slim! A peripheral co-worker of mine years ago always called them, "murder cycles." However, when did it enter the culture of our language that in every crash, we must note if the person had a helmet or in the case of cars, a seat belt on? Language is funny that way - all of a sudden those notations are in every crash report in every paper across the nation. I love the one that said:
"Joe Buckyucknuck slid off the road to avoid a deer and was thrown from his motorcycle. He flew 100 feet, hit an electric pole, was slung back out to the street and was run over by an 18-wheeler. Buckyucknuck was subsequently electrocuted when the wire snapped from the pole he hit and landed on his body in the road. Buckyucknuch was pronounced dead at the scene. Officers on the scene said Buckyucknuck was wearing a helmet."
Ah, did it really matter at that point? Think about it the next time you hear a crash report on the radio or read one in the paper. They do the same thing for seat belts. Does it really matter if they have to use four body bags to carry parts of you off the crash scene? Is the news you had a seat belt on, relevant at that point? Being a communication junkie I like to take notice of the language foisted down our throats by the self annotated language Nazis.
Ah, the weekend warriors are out with their big machines. They never rode a motorcycle until they turned 35 and got a job finally, that paid more than five dollars an hour. I have always had a motorcycle since I was twelve because I never really broke out of the five-dollar-an-hour-job culture. I have had almost every brand of "bike." And they all got good gas mileage - my latest machine gets almost 60-miles-to-the-gallon - something one must be cognizant of if you make five dollars an hour. Experts in social psychology (and paid apologists for norms and mores and kin to the aforementioned language Nazis) tell me that five-dollar-an-hour thing is my fault - something about refusing to be beholden to society's backside every day - but I digress. Anyway, I have had to ride them to work. A couple of times I even got stuck in snow - something the new age, power marketed, once-a-month-weekend-riding, yuppie, leather-clad, motor cycle fashion-disciple can't comprehend.
I have a Harley, it is teal and cream - girl colors. I don't wear leather - I wear the same thing I wore to Iraq as a journalist - cargo pants, tennis shoes, and a t-shirt. People usually give me a perturbed look at the intersection stoplights but then turn back to the light when they realize I am sitting on a Harely with more horse power under my torn cargo pants than is in their new hybrid and getting better gas mileage to-boot. Hmmm, I lived through Iraq in casual wear and was toured around there by maniac taxi-mafia drivers, but it was close a couple of times. The cars I rode in over there did not even have seat belts. And, I haven't been killed in 40 years of gonzo motorcycle riding - but it came close a couple of times. Is there a pattern here, can you guess if I wear a helmet? You might be surprised. Right now one of those social psychologist, mores defending, language Nazi types is taking a Valium tablet and a shot of Jack Daniels and cursing me I think. Cheers Doc!
This weeks soldier to remember is Specialist Paul J. Sturino, 21 of Rice Lake who died on September 22, 2003 from a non-hostile gunshot wound. He was assigned to the 101st Airborne Division and was in an area south of Mosul in northern Iraq. He was in Battery B, 2nd Battalion, 320 Field Artillery Regiment, 101st Airborne Division. Sturino was the fourth Wisconsinite killed during military operations in Iraq. Originally with a tank detail based in Lawton, Oklahoma, Paul transferred to the 101st Airborne in Fort Campbell, Kentucky to be a paratrooper. He went to Iraq in March 2003. Sturino had re-enlisted for another year as a member of the 101st but his tour of duty was subsequently extended because of the war.
3,351 Americans have been killed in Iraq since Spring 2003.
24,912 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Iraq since Spring 2003.
72 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring 2003.
Soldier of the week and military casualty information sources: cnn.com; and, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
This weeks soldier to remember is Specialist Paul J. Sturino, 21 of Rice Lake who died on September 22, 2003 from a non-hostile gunshot wound. He was assigned to the 101st Airborne Division and was in an area south of Mosul in northern Iraq. He was in Battery B, 2nd Battalion, 320 Field Artillery Regiment, 101st Airborne Division. Sturino was the fourth Wisconsinite killed during military operations in Iraq. Originally with a tank detail based in Lawton, Oklahoma, Paul transferred to the 101st Airborne in Fort Campbell, Kentucky to be a paratrooper. He went to Iraq in March 2003. Sturino had re-enlisted for another year as a member of the 101st but his tour of duty was subsequently extended because of the war.
3,351 Americans have been killed in Iraq since Spring 2003.
24,912 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Iraq since Spring 2003.
72 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring 2003.
Soldier of the week and military casualty information sources: cnn.com; and, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
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