Alexander Moulton, 1920-2012, Innovative Bicycle Designer

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Although Englishman Alexander Moulton (pictured here) was trained as an automotive engineer his most lasting professional contribution was as the designer of the first mini-bicycle, the forerunner of today’s folding bikes. The fascinating NY Times obituary details the moment when

“Moulton began toying with a small-wheel design for an adult bicycle in the late 1950s. His interest was partly spurred by gasoline rationing in Britain during the Suez crisis, which began when Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal, an act that threatened to halt oil shipments to Western Europe from the Persian Gulf.

But the design was also fostered by his own engineer’s determination to make things better: ‘The Moulton bicycle was born out of my resolve to challenge and improve upon the classic bicycle,’ he said.

His idea was to create a more efficient, all-purpose vehicle, suitable for errands and commuting at least as much as for recreation. He wanted it to have substantial carrying capacity, to be maneuverable in traffic, to roll smoothly and to be pedaled easily.

He came up with a bike with wheels 16 inches in diameter, high-pressure tires for minimum rolling resistance, front and rear rubber suspension systems for smooth riding on potholed or cobblestoned roads, and a step-through frame (that is, without the top tube of the traditional diamond-shaped frame) for easy dismounting (and more suitable for women wearing skirts). The small wheels left plenty of room for carrying briefcases, shopping bags or overnight luggage. The early bikes could easily be taken apart for convenient stowing, though they were not really foldable; still, the small-wheel collapsible bikes of today owe a debt to the original Moulton. ([The Moulton company] now makes foldable bikes itself.)”

I’ve owned mini- and collapsible bikes and didn’t know who’d invented them.  They are great city errand-running bikes. I also love the fact that they were invented as a response to a fuel crisis. Thank you, Alexander Moulton!

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Please Follow Me on Twitter

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I’m continuing to post and share items on my Facebook page, but in 2013 will also be ramping up my use of other social networks–especially Twitter, sharing material that I don’t always put on Facebook. If you’re on Twitter and want to follow me there, please do so–my handle is @philipsturner. You may sample the tweets on my profile page by clicking on this link or see a screenshot of the page below. At the upper right corner of this site, you may join me on any of the social networks where I’m active. I have other initiatives in mind for The Great Gray Bridge in 2013 and look forward to introducing them in the weeks and months to come, including publication of guest posts by other writers on key topics. As always, thanks for reading and sharing my enthusiasms and interests.

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Young Adult and Homeless in U.S. Cities

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As reported by Susan Saulny in Wednesday’s NY Times, more and more young people are suffering financially in the wake of the recession and lingering weak economy and are unable to keep themselves sheltered in homes of their own. Saluny traveled to Seattle, one of the few American cities that has outreach services specifically geared to helping people ages 18-25. She profiles young people like Duane Taylor, 24, who was,

“Studying the humanities in community college and living in his own place when he lost his job in a round of layoffs. Then he found, and lost, a second job. And a third.

Now, with what he calls ‘lowered standards’ and a tenuous new position at a Jack in the Box restaurant, Mr. Taylor, 24, does not make enough to rent an apartment or share one. He sleeps on a mat in a homeless shelter, except when his sister lets him crash on her couch.

‘At any time I could lose my job, my security,’ said Mr. Taylor, explaining how he was always the last hired and the first fired. ‘I’d like to be able to support myself. That’s my only goal.’

Across the country, tens of thousands of underemployed and jobless young people, many with college credits or work histories, are struggling to house themselves in the wake of the recession, which has left workers between the ages of 18 and 24 with the highest unemployment rate of all adults.”

Although data on this overlooked population is scarce, it’s clear that Taylor’s situation is part of a growing trend.  Saulny reports that the Obama administration has begun outreach with employment counseling and other services in a number of cities where this population has grown more visible. “New York, Houston, Los Angeles, Cleveland and Boston are among the cities included in the effort.”

She writes also about a 20-year old man named Roman Tano who’s recently been staying,

“At YouthCare’s James W. Ray Orion Center [in Seattle], another shelter for young adults that offers training programs. In October, its capacity grew to 20 beds from 15.

Two months ago, Mr. Tano gave up an apartment in his native Dallas after losing his job. He sold his Toyota and sought opportunities in the Pacific Northwest.

He rented a room and set out with his résumé (expertise: fund-raising). But when his $2,000 in savings withered to nothing, “I ended up sleeping on the street for the first time in my life,” he said. ‘I just kind of had to walk around and try to stay warm.’

Mr. Tano found the YouthCare shelter online, and has been staying there for a month. He has a new job as a canvasser for an environmental organization.

‘Coming into it, I was, like, completely out of my element,’ he said of YouthCare. ‘But in the time I’ve been here, it’s a pretty diverse group of people. There are a lot of people just trying to work to get out of this.’

‘After I get my paycheck,” he said brightly, “I should be on my way.’”

As readers of this blog may recall, I wrote a personal essay, Three Years Ago Today, on my own search for meaningful and remunerative work in the wake of a layoff amid the recession, and have linked to the site called Over 50 and Out of Work, which republished that essay as Warding Off the Demons of Disemployment, but I was unaware until tonight of young people being affected so dramatically by the economic crisis. I hope young Mr. Tano is soon on his way to a better situation, but I must add that it is crazy and misguided for Republican representatives and senators to be criticizing President Obama’s request for more economic stimulus, instead demanding deficit reduction and austerity even though we have so many people suffering with lack of work and career advancement. You may click on this link to see the video with interviews of Duane Taylor and Roman Tano accompanying Ms. Saulny’s well-reported article.

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Benjamin Wheeler, “Nearly Always at Full Tilt”

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Readers of this blog may have noted my recent post, Benjamin Wheeler, September 12, 2006-December 15, 2012–RIP, about one of the children murdered last Friday in Newtown, CT, and his father, David Cole Wheeler, with whom I was a co-worker at Avalon Publishing Group from 2001-2006. When I put up that post on Saturday there was no picture yet online of young Benjamin, but I see tonight that the Wheeler family has now released a photograph of their handsome young boy, and I am sharing it here.

A full obituary has now run in the Newtown Bee:

Benjamin Andrew Wheeler

Benjamin Andrew Wheeler was born in Manhattan, September 12, 2006, and moved to Newtown in April 2007 with his parents, Francine and David Wheeler, and his now 9-year-old brother, Nate.

Ben died December 14.

Inspired by dear friends who had made the move some years before, the family found a house in Sandy Hook and a cultural, spiritual, and creative home in the rare collection of priorities and spirit that is Newtown. Since then, Francine has become a fixture in Newtown as a music educator and performer, and more broadly, as a founding member of the children’s music group, The Dream Jam Band, while David works as an illustrator and designer. Both of them are members of Newtown’s own Flagpole Radio Cafe live radio show.

Ben was an irrepressibly bright and spirited boy whose love of fun and excitement at the wonders of life and the world could rarely be contained. His rush to experience life was headlong, creative, and immediate.

He was a devoted fan of his older brother, Nate, and the two of them together filled the house with the noise of four children. He loved the local soccer program, often running across the field long after it was actually necessary, but always smiling and laughing as he moved the ball, nearly always at full tilt. He was becoming a strong swimmer and loved his lessons.

Eager to learn, he could not wait to get to school to see his teacher and his growing group of new first grade friends. Ben was also a member of Tiger Scout Den 6, which met at the Sandy Hook Volunteer Firehouse.

Earlier in December, Ben performed at his piano recital, and sitting still long enough to play one piece was an accomplishment he reveled in. He loved The Beatles, lighthouses, and the number 7 train to Sunnyside, Queens.

In a conversation with Francine before school on Friday, he said, “I still want to be an architect, but I also want to be a paleontologist, because that’s what Nate is going to be and I want to do everything Nate does.”

He will be sadly missed by his loving parents; his brother Nate; his grandparents Carmen and Annette Lobis of Garnet Valley, Penn., Ellsworth and Kay Wheeler of Charleston, S.C., and Harry Berquist of Newport News, Va.; great-grandmother Sophia Turchi of Broomall, Penn.; aunts and uncles Michael and Sheila Lobis, Anthony and Colleen Lobis, and Steven and Ann Lobis, all of Penn., Jeffrey and Dawn Wheeler of Wash., and Andrew and Jamie Wheeler of Hawaii; great-aunts and uncles James and Nancy Cole of Va., Robert Lobis of Colo., and Michael Lobis, Marianne Stewart, and Marie Turchi, all of Penn.; and numerous cousins and friends. He was predeceased by grandmother Ann Cole Berquist.

It is suggested that memorial donations be made to the Benjamin Wheeler Fund, c/o Trinity Episcopal Church, 36 Main Street, Newtown CT 06470.

The family will receive visitors at the Trinity Episcopal Church, Newtown, Wednesday, December 19, from 4 to 8 pm. The funeral will be held at the church Thursday, December 20, at 11 am. Burial will be private.
The B.C. Bailey Funeral Home of Wallingford has been entrusted with the arrangements. To leave a message of remembrance, please visit www.BCBailey.com.

—

My deepest condolences to David, Ben’s mother Francine, and their older son, Nate. Please feel free to leave a comment in space below, if you worked at Avalon with us, or would just like to say something.

 

 

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Racist Football Fans Hating on President Obama

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Warning: If you read the Deadspin article associated with the tweet below, you will encounter vile racist haters of President Obama. Disturbing.

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Dogs Giving Comfort in Newtown

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A K-9 team of comfort dogs has been flown from Chicago to Newtown, CT to be available to grieving children and adults to be petted and hugged for consolation in the wake of the mass murders there last Friday. As reported by Naomi Nix in the Chicago Tribune, ten golden retrievers, including the dogs pictured here–Chewie, Ruthie, and Luther–are now in the small town, provided by Lutheran Church Charities. Nix’s story adds,

The dogs have been helpful even to those without children in Sandy Hook Elementary School . . . organizers said. “I asked [one man] how he is doing. He just kind of teared up and said: ‘This year, I’ve lost five loved ones and now this happened,’  Hetzner said. ”The whole town is suffering.“ The comfort-dog initiative first started in 2008 at Northern Illinois University after a gunman killed five students. . . . [It] was so successful that weeks later students petitioned university leadership to bring comfort dogs back to campus, Hetzner said. The initiative has grown from a handful of dogs in the Chicago area to 60 dogs in six different states, he said. Since then, the dogs have traveled across the nation to comfort people in the aftermath of major tragedies such as, Hurricane Sandy, and the tornado that hit Joplin, MO. On Monday, the dogs plan to be with Sandy Hook students for after-school activities.

Amid this tragedy, it gladdens my heart that these dogs will be in the town to be held and hugged, to give back what dogs do give, unconditional love. H/t Michael Rosenwald of the Washington Post who tweeted this earlier.

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Tweeting a Colleague’s Sad Loss in Newtown

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Benjamin Wheeler, September 12, 2006-December 14, 2012–RIP

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My sadness and anger over the shootings at the elementary school in Connecticut grew this afternoon when I learned that the 6-year old son of a former colleague was among the children killed in the incident. From 2000 through 2006 I worked at Carroll & Graf Publishers, part of the Avalon Publishing Group, and during that time David Cole Wheeler worked in Avalon’s art department as a designer of covers and book interiors. For much of that time, his work station was directly across from my office, and Cole–as he was then known–and I spoke often, about books, design, politics, and New York City. He was a close work friend. Occasionally, I remember seeing his wife Francine come by the office.

On September 11, 2001, Avalon’s office was in lower Manhattan only a couple blocks from the World Trade Center. Many Avalon colleagues experienced that day together–I ran from the building with a co-worker–and months of upset and distress followed, as we continued working in that stricken neighborhood. In 2002, the company moved uptown to Chelsea but all of us having been through so much together, Avalon remained a pretty tight workplace, with a lot of close work friendships. We went our separate ways when Avalon was sold to Perseus Books in 2007, but folks have tended to keep in touch. Earlier this year, several of us came together on Facebook after learning of the sudden death of our office manager, David Ortiz, who was killed in an accident in San Diego where he had moved with his wife. I really liked David, and sadly, had written a recommendation for him on LinkedIn shortly before his death. How unsettling it is to know that that is still there on line.

I’d heard that after Avalon broke up, Cole–who’d begun using his proper first name, David–and Francine had moved out of the city and moved to Connecticut. Tonight, I got a message from longtime friend and Avalon colleague, Keith Wallman. The Wheelers’ six-year old son Benjamin was among those murdered in Newtown. This sketch of Benjamin is in the Washington Post tonight:

Benjamin Wheeler
Benjamin Wheeler, 6, was “a very spirited boy,” said Rabbi Shaul Praver of Adath Israel in Newtown.  He and his parents, David and Francine Wheeler, were not members of the synagogue, but they attended its Hanukkah  celebration.
“There’s always some brave individual who goes up to the dance floor to get everybody involved. That was Ben Wheeler,” he said. “Just delightful people.”
The Wheelers did not want to talk to the media Saturday, said a man who answered the phone at their home. The Episcopal bishops of Connecticut said the family were members of Trinity Episcopal Church of Newton. A volunteer there said the church lost several congregants in the shooting and the rector, the Rev. Kathie Adams-Shepherd, was ministering to them Saturday.

My deepest sympathy and condolences to David and Francine, and their older son, Nate. I’ve been thinking of them all night. They will remain in my heart.

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