November 30, 2007

Got My Journal to Keep Me Warm!

In reflecting on past postings about the Rapid City Journal, I believe I’ve been a bit unfair. They do much good work, even though I think their priorities sometimes get screwed up – like many of their headlines.

As have several Journal subscribers, I even toyed with the notion of cancelling my subscription. However, the Rapid City Journal is the major daily in our little part of the world, so I’ve abandoned that idea. I’ve simply widened the scope of papers that I read; it’s more time consuming – but what the hey, I’m retired!

And now, I’ve found an additional reason for continuing to pay the paperboy for the RC Journal.

I’m a fair weather bicyclist. And now for those who roll out their two-wheelers in the dead of winter, there’s a way to beat the cold – newspapers.

It seems that some cyclists in the Tour de France stuff newspapers under their jerseys as thermal insulators. Partly tradition, we’re told, but apparently newsprint is a good insulator and will trap body heat.

I learned of this little trick from a
front-page article in the weekend edition of the Wall Street Journal. (Note to the Rapid City Journal: that’s the front page of the weekend section – not the front page of the newspaper!)

Thanks to good friend and retired public broadcasting colleague Bill Campbell for the use of this photograph. It was taken near Bowman, North Dakota while Bill was trekking from White Sulphur Springs, Montana to Chicago during the balmier summer months of 2006.

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