Captain Moonlight

YOU sort yourselves out, but as far as I'm concerned, there's only one place to be next Monday: the annual conference of the British Sociological Association at the University of Central Lancashire in Preston. What particularly caught my eye is a paper by Paul Rosen on bicycles:

'I aim to explore (the) post-modern blurring of distinctions in relation to bicycles and cycling. Firstly I'll illustrate the difficulty of defining what exactly is 'a bicycle', and where the line can be drawn between bicycles and other artefacts. By then problematising assumptions built into bicycle design about cyclists based on gender, style, activity, age, etc., this definition problem extends out into the social world: if 'bicycle' can't be defined unproblematically, then neither can 'racing cyclist', 'woman cyclist', or even, by extension, 'woman'.'

Exactly, Paul, I know just what you mean. I'll be the Raleigh tourer in the second row.