Jill Homer, 'Bicycling beast'

Nice little article about Jill Homer on the Juneau Empire website (where Jill's an editor) about her race down the Tour Divide. She officially beat the old record by four days.

As mentioned here before, I'm a huge fan of her blog.

Some choice quotes:

"One of the great things about putting in a good, hard day on the road or trail is that supreme feeling of tiredness you get right afterward - those rare moments when you curl up on the couch with a cold can of Diet Pepsi and let your fatigue wrap around you in a blanket of calm satisfaction," she said.

and

"Against the advice of most fast GDR and Tour Divide veterans, my race strategy is to have no strategy. I have a few tentative goals for the first couple nights, but my plan is to be completely flexible."

Bicycling beast - Juneau Empire

The spaghetti tree

The report was first produced [by the BBC]... in 1957, reporting on the bumper spaghetti harvest in Switzerland, resulting from the mild winter and "virtual disappearance of the spaghetti weevil." Footage of the traditional "Harvest Festival" was aired as well as discussion of the breeding necessary for the development of a strain that produced the perfect length.

The Wikipedia article on the subject is a most enjoyable read.

See also this lovely video produced by the BBC on flying penguins.