Heres a geography quiz:Which Of The Earths Great Rivers Is This?A) The GangesB) The MississippiC) The AmazonD) The Saw MillWell, if you answered D), youre correctand no doubt you did, too, because the mighty Saw Mill River is instantly recognizable to anybody anywhere in the world, even now when it is muddy and swollen from days of rain from the noreaster that has been sitting on our face since Saturday like a plus-sized commuter with a pantful of sweat on a subway train with a broken air conditioning.Yes, from its source in [Intern: look it up] this fabled waterway flows along the bike path until it eventually finds its way into the Hudson:Indeed, this is the very same bike path where only this past spring I ran afoul of some drunkards:If youre disinclined to read about it, the short version is that the winos gave me some crap, and so I did what any real man does, which is yell something really mean at them and then ride away quickly.For awhile after I steered clear of the Hobo Gauntlet, because they really did want to kill me, and I worried that next time I saw them theyd succeed in getting a hold of me, like when the bums get their revenge on Alex in A Clockwork Orange. Fortunately, the pickle jars that are their brains did not retain memory of the incident for long. In fact, now when I pass them, not only do they refrain from attacking me, but they actually give me a great big friendly drunken greeting, go figure.This is yet more proof (as though you even needed it) that there really is no problem so big that alcohol cant solve itjust as long as you dont consider spending your days and nights beneath an overpass on a suburban bike path a problem.But that was spring, and now its falland very suddenly, too. Any second now the trees will start to turn:And its already wool jersey weather:I received this jersey from Wabi Woolens three years ago now and its become one of my most trusted cycling garments. If youre looking for a wool jersey I highly recommend it, and dont let my misshapen torso dissuade you, because heres how it looks on a normal person:It really is luxurious!Also, if it looks a little twisted on me, thats only because I stopped to pick up a combination lock for my younger son and I think the weight of it is causing the jersey to sag a little.As for the fender line on the Milwaukee, I have no excuse for that:Still, it too is luxurious.Really, the only complaint I have about the Wabi Wollens jersey is that it doesnt have a dedicated pocket for the pet squirrel who I trained to check my tire pressure and perform other basic mid-ride maintenance tasks:This should not be confused with the chipmunk who changes my gears for me:[BK Jimmy]The Mammo-drive system appeared on this blog (or technically this one) so long ago I can no longer even find the post, but it prefigured Rotors ridiculous hydraulic group by many years, and in fact I suspect its where they got the idea:Not only that, but this was also years before AI, so consider this image a testament to human ingenuity.Anyway, after the ride I left the squirrel to clean the bike while I settled in for some aprs-cycle reading:And yes, I always read in cycling clothing, dont you?Thats the fourth installment of The Farbman Chronicles, of course, which Ive quite enjoyed:And speaking of made-to-order bicycles, if you couldnt get enough of last months MADE showNow theres the CRAFTED show:MADE, CRAFTEDwhats left, HEWN?I guess that would be an all-wooden bike show:As for CRAFTED, all I wanted to know was if there were any bikes with rim brakes, and it looks like there is one exhibitor who still uses them:[Rim brakes and disembodied hands? Maybe theres still hope]This inspired me to start my own rim brake-only bike show called RIMMED. However, when I went to register a URL every conceivable variation of the name was already in use by some kind of adult website. So I quickly abandoned the idea in favor of a new concept, which Im calling the THROWN TOGETHER show:By the way, did you know why the Homer is called what its called? Heres why, from OMP himself:Originally the A. Homer Hilsen was going to be the Honus Wagner (old time shortstop for the Pittsburgh Pirates, good hitter and fast runner despite his bow legs). I started collecting bits of Honus Wagner paraphernalia. The plan was to make 206 of them, only, because that was the number of H.W. baseball cards that made it into circulation back in the 19aughts. Only 206 because, as I remember from reading, these werent bubblegum cards; they were cigarette cards, and Honus was able to stop production, because he didnt think kids should smoke. They didnt instantly become collectible, and over the years most were lost, and then in recent decades one of those cards in great condition became worth millions. I think Wayne Gretsky bought the best one a while back, but I dont keep up, OK? Google it yourself.Anyway, I prudently looked into the legality or whatnot of naming a bike the Honus Wagner, and found out that a law firm then in Colorado was guarding his name, on behalf of two sisters, both HWs heirs, aand one of whom was named Linda Blair, if that name means anything to you. They received royalties from HW bobbleheads and coffee mugs that sold for $5 to $15 each. We at first made a deal, where wed pay $1,000 or so and offer the sisters the first prototypeso they could have a Honus Wagner bicycle. Wed already had the decals made and were working on the head badge. They said Yes at first (thru their lawyers), and all was going well until they sensed that wed reached a point of no return and were so invested in this that we couldnt turn back. So they then wanted access to our books, 24/7<they actually used that phraseand wanted to be able to buy as many HW bikes as they wanted at our cost. It was too weird and shifty and just too much, no thanks, so I changed the name to something I couldnt imagine was trademarked, and thats how it became the A. Homer Hilsen.I dont count sales, but Ill guess that weve sold about 2,700 of them, and I still ride the prototype the sisters never got.I think we can all agree that the name A. Homer Hilsen is a lot better than A. Habeas Corpus, which is what I would have called it had I found myself in that same predicament:Sorry, Im sure every time I use AI to generate an image I bring us all just a tiny bit closer to mass extinction, but its oddly addicting and I just cant help it.