Don Cherry made headlines last week, as he joined Toronto’s newly-elected mayor Rob Ford as special guest at his swearing-in-ceremony. Special indeed.
Dressed in one of his trademark clown outfits—this time a loud pink floral jacket—the hockey commentator fulminated about “pinkos … that ride bicycles” and “left-wing kooks.”
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0AP-DgX1xk[/youtube]
Ford is famous for telling cyclists run down by motorists that “it’s their own fault” for daring to ride on roads “built for buses, cars and trucks.” One senses that the mayor’s fame can only increase with time.
Cherry did a good job humiliating himself, but if we can take the comment sections of newspapers and blogs as evidence, he has once-and-for-all cemented his reputation as Canada’s celebrity gasbag.
By far the smartest response, however, has come from Toronto’s Curbside Cycle, who, in an open letter, have offered Cherry a free bicycle, as a chance “to take a little egg off your face and allow you to (literally) do a bit of backpedalling.” It may well be that, under their business guise, these bicycle merchants are pinkos.
Pointing out, as a recent French study found, that cycling is the fastest and most convenient way to get around downtown, Curbside is promising Cherry a British Pashley city bike, with ”a Plaid, a floral, or what-have-you” custom paint job to match Cherry’s personality (or at least his suit) and is offering the public a chance to vote on the design.
The ex-hockey player looks like he could do with a bit of exercise and I for one would donate a few bucks for a bike helmet—extra-large, of course.
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My advice to Don Cherry, to use an English expression, is, “On yer bike.”
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