Jacquie Phelan's Weblog

By Reed Alabowditch

Jacquie Phelan has written a rangy, long-winded account of the rough road fat tire cyclists have had in Marin County since the sport/pastime/religion was reputed to have evolved here in the 1970’s.

Her account is deeply personal, and has enough bad puns in it to irritate even the most thick-skinned word butchers.  Residents of Marin get the weekly “Specific Pun” (as we call it here) free; all  supermarkets carry a stack of them. For you out of towners, I’m happy to mail you an autographed (sorry, bike-o-graphed) copy for five clams sent to Bat box 757 , Fairfax CA 94978.

There are about eight great photos in the (paper version) that aren’t seen in the online copy, alas.

Can she turn this account into a book? We are hoping so. The last twenty years (her prime, technically speaking) all she’s done is left “droppings”.   If you didn’t see the actual paper in the free newspaper boxes at assorted fine media outlets, you can take a stab at all 4,000 turgid words of Ms. Phelan’s version of “bicycler” history.

Faintly related: a transcript of an oral interview with Marin County’s greatest conservationist, Peter Behr, who helped preserve thousands of acres of land all over the county, most notably the Pt. Reyes peninsula and “Marincello” (a metropolis that, although approved,  luckily  never was built).  The Pacific Sun had a huge role in the Pt. Reyes preservation, because there was no money to buy it. Somehow, every legislator in Washington D.C. got a copy of the Sun, with its photos by the great Pirkle Jones, and were convinced to earmark funds to purchase the seashore to prevent development.
I get shivers thinking about it.

He also mentions that being a practicing lawyer and a politician is a conflict of interest, which is why he didn’t maintain a practice when he was a supervisor and a congressman. Such integrity would be considered “quaint” among our current supes!

~ by jacquiephelan on July 2, 2010.

Posted in Uncategorized
Tags: "Cover story", "July 2, "Marin Mountain Bike History", "Pacific Sun story", "This is a phony review", 2010", We don't want no stinkin Marincello