Courier (not the font)
A number of us here at Your Life's Ideas have previously discussed (offline) the irrefutable appeal of the pneumatic tube system and its heyday in the first half of the last century. Allow me to demonstrate:
How can you resist this communication method? How?! I swear, at this moment (10:44PM on 1/11/06), that if Your Life's Ideas ever experiences the privilege of controlling some office space, I will do everything in my power to see that that office space be equipped with a sytem we'll call The Pneumatic Device. But that's not today's topic.
Right now, I'm fascinated with the concept of the bicycle courier. The bike messenger is a dying breed, what with the advent and ascent of electronic communication, but the appeal of this means of communication is, while not as aurally satisfying as the tube system (thwump-p), certainly an aesthetic and philosophic pleasure.
Communicating by bike courier says, "Associate, you do not work in this building but you work in the same geographic area that I do, and I want to show you something. I can't just call and talk about it. You need this in your hands, and you need it within the 1/2 hour, and it's worth it for me to hire this under-insured wannabe actor with a bike, a bag, and very little regard for his personal safety to get it to you for a fairly reasonable fee."
Now, the bike courier community tends to centralize in densely populated areas like Manhattan and inside the Loop in Chicage, but I'd like to see us incorporate this into our lives regardless of the size of our city. What if, say, I'm at work and there's a particularly hilarious picture of the treasurer of my professional organization in our monthly newsletter that I want to share with The Drowning Man and H. Pompous? And I want to do it now? Am I going to go to find a scanner and email it? NO. I'm going to call these people--only I'm going to call my local chapter, which will have been established by that time thanks to the grassroots efforts started by this post.
So get ready, all you Lance Armstrong/that guy from "King of Queens" hybrids--we've got some things we need to get across town and into the hands of Mr. Pseudonymous and Mr. Pseudonymous only.
Pronto.
How can you resist this communication method? How?! I swear, at this moment (10:44PM on 1/11/06), that if Your Life's Ideas ever experiences the privilege of controlling some office space, I will do everything in my power to see that that office space be equipped with a sytem we'll call The Pneumatic Device. But that's not today's topic.Right now, I'm fascinated with the concept of the bicycle courier. The bike messenger is a dying breed, what with the advent and ascent of electronic communication, but the appeal of this means of communication is, while not as aurally satisfying as the tube system (thwump-p), certainly an aesthetic and philosophic pleasure.
Communicating by bike courier says, "Associate, you do not work in this building but you work in the same geographic area that I do, and I want to show you something. I can't just call and talk about it. You need this in your hands, and you need it within the 1/2 hour, and it's worth it for me to hire this under-insured wannabe actor with a bike, a bag, and very little regard for his personal safety to get it to you for a fairly reasonable fee."
Now, the bike courier community tends to centralize in densely populated areas like Manhattan and inside the Loop in Chicage, but I'd like to see us incorporate this into our lives regardless of the size of our city. What if, say, I'm at work and there's a particularly hilarious picture of the treasurer of my professional organization in our monthly newsletter that I want to share with The Drowning Man and H. Pompous? And I want to do it now? Am I going to go to find a scanner and email it? NO. I'm going to call these people--only I'm going to call my local chapter, which will have been established by that time thanks to the grassroots efforts started by this post.
So get ready, all you Lance Armstrong/that guy from "King of Queens" hybrids--we've got some things we need to get across town and into the hands of Mr. Pseudonymous and Mr. Pseudonymous only.
Pronto.
posted by JLD at 19:20
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