At a dinner recently, the conversation veered to current affairs as a matter of course and the doping scandal (or not) of Lance Armstrong was soon being hotly debated. One guest was reading from a rather vitriolic, yet punctilious, post on Facebook with some of the guests listening and others engrossed in their own side conversations. The post listed out all of Lance's achievements and berated the USA for stripping a national hero (if not global icon) of his accolades, and thus demeaning the work he'd done for charities etc. Not overlooking the fact that the accuser in all this was in fact Armstrong's greatest sporting rival.
And that's about when it happened.
Someone who'd only be half listening suddendly chipped in with: "Ah, yes!! A great loss." We unanimously agreed, nodded and pondered for a moment.
"Doing what he did was truly momentous."
"Yeah, it's only envy driving those naysayers and witch-hunters," commented a 3rd person.
"But he did do it...! Surely you can't doubt that?!", continued the interjector.
"Well of course you can't, he wore the yellow jersey 7 times."
At this point the fog descended just a little further before rising rather swiftly.
Yellow jerseys on the moon? What was he talking about?!
The conversastion had put Lance Armstrong on the moon (with inappropriately flying flags and artificial moondust) and plonked the recently deceased Neil Armstrong on a push-bike in the Pyrenees or somewhere equally Gallic.
The group had mixed up our "Armstrongs".
Guffaws followed all around.
The States honoured one Armstrong with flags at half mast across the nation, while it lambasted and condemned the other Armstrong on rather flimsy evidence.
But I do like the image of Neil on a bike and Lance in a spacesuit - yellow or not.
And that's about when it happened.
Someone who'd only be half listening suddendly chipped in with: "Ah, yes!! A great loss." We unanimously agreed, nodded and pondered for a moment.
"Doing what he did was truly momentous."
"Yeah, it's only envy driving those naysayers and witch-hunters," commented a 3rd person.
"But he did do it...! Surely you can't doubt that?!", continued the interjector.
"Well of course you can't, he wore the yellow jersey 7 times."
At this point the fog descended just a little further before rising rather swiftly.
Yellow jerseys on the moon? What was he talking about?!
The conversastion had put Lance Armstrong on the moon (with inappropriately flying flags and artificial moondust) and plonked the recently deceased Neil Armstrong on a push-bike in the Pyrenees or somewhere equally Gallic.
The group had mixed up our "Armstrongs".
Guffaws followed all around.
The States honoured one Armstrong with flags at half mast across the nation, while it lambasted and condemned the other Armstrong on rather flimsy evidence.
But I do like the image of Neil on a bike and Lance in a spacesuit - yellow or not.
