Why did you pick your username?

At the time I signed up, I was listening to the song Cassidy on the album Ace by Bob Weir, the rhythm guitarist for the Grateful Dead. On the one hand, that’s all there is to it . . .

. . . But, on the other hand, it seemed appropriate. Weir wrote the music and John Perry Barlow wrote the lyrics: Weir was also a mountain biker in the 1980s (indeed, Charlie Kelly interviewed him on a nighttime ride) and Barlow was an early user of the ‘Well’ in San Francisco, probably the earliest computer-based bulletin board, before going on to become an internet pioneer. The Dead were a Marin County band for most of their career, and that’s where mountain biking as we know it began. When the Dead disbanded in 1995, their offices in San Rafael were taken over by Marin bikes—and I had a Marin bike.

In the 1990s, Barlow wrote an entire essay on the lyrics to Cassidy. It’s about the death of Neal Cassady, the famous beatnik and inspiration for Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, and it’s about the birth, at roughly the same time, of Cassidy Law, daughter of Eileen Law, the Dead’s office manager. ‘Catch-colt draws a coffin cart. There he goes now, here she starts.’ In Barlow’s words, ‘This is a song about necessary dualities: dying & being born, men & women, speaking & being silent, devastation & growth, desolation & hope.’ Hence the avatar with yin and yang, sun and moon, night and day, inside a Grateful Dead ‘stealie’ skull.

The version of Cassidy on Ace is largely acoustic but one of my lasting memories of 1990 is the Dead’s performance of the song at Wembley Arena on November 1st—and Bob’s guitar was front, centre, powerful and brilliant.
 
1. Quite a few people back in New York call me PW (first and last initial).

2. I moved to LA.

3. I was impatient and didn't plan to be on here all day every day when I signed up.

And I've regretted it ever since.

Hardly rolls off the tongue for the bantz, does it?

Anyway, someone told me I could change it, I'd just get locked out of here for a day or something as a result.

I worry about withdrawal/missing that one thing I really need in the For Sale section.
 
@pw_pw_la it really isn’t that painful anymore. Just do it when you’re thought of a good one
Taffy confidential or maybe LA shepherd ? 🤣🙏😘
 
Being a Kayaker and still considering myself a boy when I stuck my toe into the fledgling World Wide Web ( as it was known BITD) Yakboy seemed appropriate, others have pointed out I have the same amount of body hair as a mountain yak, but I couldn't possibly comment ( and certainly not on my head these days)
 
FYI @CassidyAce there's more connection with the Dead and MTB. Gary Fisher wrote in his book about being the light and/or sound tech for the them in his early days. Also lived with them for a bit, if memory serves correctly

PS mandatory cat portrait:
IMG_20220221_090202405.jpg
"Harley Loving the Foot"
 
Kinda makes you question it though, doesn’t it?
Once A Hero as in “was he once a hero?”
or
“Once A Hero always a hero?”

In my case neither! 🤣

I would have chosen Bomber if available at the time. Though nothing of that name seems to come up now when searching 🤔
I knew a bomber once. Going back to uni days in Manchester now though. He had a delightful lts followed by an equally tasty turner. Oh and his missus at the time was equally bike mental.

As to novocaine, it was coined at uni, there was some bull crap story behind it, but i can't remeber it now. Its stuck around though. I seem to remember novocaine for the soul being part of the reason though.
 

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