YellowDuck
06-09-2010, 07:19 PM
Truth is, I generally disagree with at least 75% of what Booth has to say, but I do find him smart and interesting. It is possible to be smart and interesting, and also wrong. Which is fine.
This month's column had two interesting bits in it for me. First, he gives his opinion of Shop Class as Soul Craft, which I read a few months ago. He says it "could just as easily be about plumbing". Not sure if he actually read it or not, because in fact some parts of it are about plumbing, and pretty significant parts are about electrical work. Anyway, the book in no way pretends to be about motorcycling - there just happens to be one on the cover, because the author currently works as a motorcycle mechanic.
The other interesting coincidence was that he mentions a fellow named Robert Edison Fulton Jr., who apparently travelled around the world on a motorcycle in 1932. The reason this was a coincidence was that just a few days ago I directed Laverda to an old thread I posted last summer with photos of vintage bikes at a show in Italy. One of the photos was of a "Douglas" with a strange engine layout - longitudinally mounted flat twin. I had never heard of a Douglas before seeing that one in Bassano...but apparently that is the make of bike that Fulton rode on his adventure.
This month's column had two interesting bits in it for me. First, he gives his opinion of Shop Class as Soul Craft, which I read a few months ago. He says it "could just as easily be about plumbing". Not sure if he actually read it or not, because in fact some parts of it are about plumbing, and pretty significant parts are about electrical work. Anyway, the book in no way pretends to be about motorcycling - there just happens to be one on the cover, because the author currently works as a motorcycle mechanic.
The other interesting coincidence was that he mentions a fellow named Robert Edison Fulton Jr., who apparently travelled around the world on a motorcycle in 1932. The reason this was a coincidence was that just a few days ago I directed Laverda to an old thread I posted last summer with photos of vintage bikes at a show in Italy. One of the photos was of a "Douglas" with a strange engine layout - longitudinally mounted flat twin. I had never heard of a Douglas before seeing that one in Bassano...but apparently that is the make of bike that Fulton rode on his adventure.