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Dear Dave,
Just read TRD and liked it so much I recommended it on Facebook.
You must tell The Boy Biker that he only learnt half a lesson when he went on a long journey by night with a dicky headlamp. He should have stuck with the old guy with the ageing landrover, a Volkswagen bulb and some tin snips. He never let him get on to true high level bodging which is to find a non-fitting main bulb and solder wire tags on to the contacts, then tape it into the shell.
That’s the fun part of breaking down by the roadside. Sometimes you get to meet a maintenance Zen master, in disguise as usual, and the adventure gets really interesting.
Yours
Andy Tribble
Hi Dave,
Congratulations on an amazing – and moving – issue 177!
Snow is finally almost all gone here in Southwest Wisconsin. I’ve ridden different bikes on consecutive days now after work as temps have ‘soared’ into the 40s and 50s. Both of my Harleys have been out now and my VF500C Honda stretched its legs yesterday afternoon. Still have to dress warm, though.
I hope your spring is off to a great start.
All the best
Gary Ilminen,
Lone Rock, WI
USA
It’s good to hear that it’s warming up for you Gary because when Dave Boulineau wrote from Madison last month, he’d been expecting a foot of snow the following day – Ed
Hello Dave,
And thanks again for all your work, imagination, creativity and stamina.
What a coup to pull off – not only an interview with Paul Sample but a dedicated bespoke front cover – Very Well Done or VWD as we might say in this age of abbreviations!!
Cheers again
Dave (aka thebiglad) Jebson
Limousin
France
Thanks for your kind words Dave but I must ‘fess up about the cover; it wasn’t done especially for us, it was I believe an old Suzuki advert originally. The interview however, was very much our own and exclusive, which is something that I am very proud of. This also ties in with a brief message I received from ‘Sean’ saying, “Good to see you have Paul Sample on board”. While we were honoured that the esteemed creator of Ogri chose to join us on the Good Ship Digest last month (and would be absolutely delighted any time he chooses to sail with us again), it would be overstating it a little to claim that he has ‘joined the staff’. That said we are incredibly lucky at TRD to have our very own in-house genius in Simon Kewer, who’s been producing all of our cartoons and illustrations for the best part of a decade now – Ed
Dear Dave,
I have been reading TRD ever since I worked for West 1 Couriers (which is now Citysprint of course) in 1998 and while it has never been ‘High Times’, I have always had the impression that both the magazine’s founding father, Roger Tuson, and your good self, have been known to ‘inhale’ on the odd occasion.
There was a terrific Lois Fast-Lane article in TRD 105 where she debunked myths about cannabis and your editorial in that issue (which I have in front of me in hard copy) finished with, “As always the box at the bottom of this page says, “the opinions and comments of contributors….” However I would like to state for the record that in the case of Ms Fast-Lane’s contribution this month, I unequivocally support and wholeheartedly endorse every uncommonly sensible word she has written.”
So I nearly choked on my bong when, drawn by your colourful cover, I was reading the otherwise brilliant Paul Sample interview and I saw, “I had a friend from college who was all into smoking spliffs and injecting heroin,” says Paul, ”but he ended up committing suicide by sitting on the railway tracks on the underground.”
How could you undo all Lois’s hard work by repeating the sort of ‘gateway drug’ rubbish that was discredited so long ago that it is only the most rabid of the red tops that still repeat it? I was nearly 25 before I succumbed to the lure of sweet Mary Jane because I grew up believing that if I so much as inhaled a lungful of ‘drugs’, I’d be lying in a fetid squat with a spike in my vein before the week was out! But that was the 70s for pity’s sake; I thought everyone had learned better in the last four decades.
Consequently it was a little unfair of Mr Sample to respond to a question about sex and drugs by talking about his spliff-smoking, heroin-injecting friend, when you consider how many people throughout the sixties, and ever since, have used and abused a wide array of ‘drugs’ (i.e. the illegal variety) without ever feeling the need to traumatise a tube driver.
I sincerely hope that on this occasion Paul Sample’s opinions and comments can be counted among the ones that do not necessarily reflect yours, rather than indicating a general move towards a more reactionary editorial standpoint.
Never forget, reality is for people who cannot handle drugs!
Ride safe
Edward Head
Woodstock
Oxon
Edward, the whole reason for that disclaimer is to allow me to publish anything – and I really do mean anything that isn’t solely and specifically designed to be offensive or abusive – without fear that anyone might think that it speaks for me. Given the choice between an article that expresses strong views that I disagree with and another that has nothing particular to say, I would always much prefer to run with the former. Paul is as entitled to his opinion as you are to yours and as long as I am producing TRD I will give you both space to express them, which then allows the readers – if they actually give a toss – to decide what their position is on the subject – Ed
