Blast From the Past

While I was away in Thunder Bay in July I saw this vintage cycle locked up outside the Hoito:

The Hoito is a Finnish breakfast place / diner that must be experienced if you go to Thunder Bay.

It is located underneath the Finlandia Club. Try the Finnish pancakes. Newsflash: There are lots of people of Finnish ancestry in Thunder Bay.

Also be sure to purchase and eat a "Persian", a local delicacy that is only found in Thunder Bay, believe it or not. They aren't much more interesting than a doughnut to local people, who know not the extraordinary way in which they have been blessed, but when the Rantwick clan visits Thunder Bay we celebrate them with great vigour.

wikipedia link

They are freakin' delicious. The best Persians can be purchased, not surprisingly, from "The Persian Man", which has at least two locations in town, maybe more.

The wikipedia article claims that there are "persians" available in Wisconsin as well, but they feature white icing sometimes with nuts or coconut. That is utter nonsense. Everybody knows persians have a strangely hard to describe pink strawberry-raspberry flavoured icing. White icing. Pffft. Whatever, Wisconsin...

Where was I? Oh yes, the bike. Check out the licence plate!

I remember those from when I was a kid; everyone was supposed to license their bicycle in the City of Thunder Bay. I checked their web site and found no reference to any such practice these days.

It was kind of nice to see how seriously bikes were treated at one time. Almost like, um, vehicles!

Yer Pal,

R A N T W I C K

How Cyclists See Toronto

If you had to guess which city would be nicer to ride your bike in, would you choose Toronto, Ontario, Canada or Dallas, Texas, USA?

I'm thinking that most people who don't know either city would guess Toronto. Canadians are usually so well mannered, right? Right?

Here's a post from one Texas cyclist who didn't really enjoy Toronto's downtown cycling scene. I think it should be seen as a wake-up call to anyone who thinks Toronto is doing OK when it comes to cycling...

Second Class in Toronto

I would encourage Torontonians to respond to that post as they see fit... I'm looking forward to seeing their comments on it.

Yer Pal,

R A N T W I C K

The Olympic Ideal

There's something that has gotten a lot of play on Canadian media that I want to share with my non-Canadian readers because it is just so cool. In this case, it is the Canadian who slipped up and a Costa Rican who just might be the best sport ever.

Here's the deal. Canadian triathlete Simon Whitfield wiped out while passing over some wooden structure that was built over top of a speed bump. His mistake. Video available here. Sorry I couldn't embed it in this page, CTV wasn't having any of that kind of good functionality happening, no way.

When I first saw that footage I was sad for my countryman, but frankly I was more concerned about the guy behind him that he took out... Simon has won medals (including Gold) and was participating in his 4th Olympics, but what about that poor guy? He managed to continue and finished 48th, having been in 18th place after the swim and somewhere around 21st right before the crash.


That poor guy was Costa Rican triathlete Leonardo Chacón Corrales, who posted the following on facebook the very next day:

That is one Costa Rican who will have many Canadians rooting for him in 2016! I know I will be.

Hey, be a Leonardo and show some class, will ya?

R A N T W I C K

PS - If coverage of this has been more widespread than I thought and is old news, my apologies. Although, when you think about it, you knew I was gonna waste your time one way or another anyway.