We’ve Been Outed: The New Yorker says cycling is fey !!!

[Louis]

It’s sometimes interesting to see what others think of you, and today I had a revelation. In the Feb. 16/23 New Yorker, in a review of the new John Malkovich movie “Ripley’s Game,” Anthony Lane wrote:

“Other actors might have nurtured the fanatic in Ripley, but none, I suspect, would have dared to flirt with the fey; in the course of this film, however, we find Malkovich bicycling, practicing yoga, and, yes, sewing in bed.”

Well, I am a cyclist, I attend a yoga class once a week, and if a button falls off a shirt I’ve been known to sew it back on (perhaps while sitting on the edge of my bed). Who would have thunk it?

We’re all cyclists here, and several of us are quite seriously into yoga, maybe Lane is onto something!

Louis

[BumbleBeeDave]

. . . in my dictionary, “fey” is listed as meaning,

a) Fated to die soon.

b) Marked by a sense of approaching death.

c) Clairvoyant

d) Enchanted: elfin

While I am certainly not looking forward to A or B, C would defitintely come in handy for those rides in traffic to see which yahoo talking on a cell phone is going to cut in front of me, and D might be useful to enchantedly jump out of the way when said yahoo DOES veer, and after the Lord Of The Rings Oscar sweep last night, I will eagerly jump on the elfin bandwagon--they’re on a roll!

BBDave

[davids]

On the Opinion page from yesterday's paper, in an article about an economic theory of the "creative class" (click to read the whole darn thing (http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2004/02/29/the_road_to_riches/))(italics added):

"The Carnegie Mellon business professor's 2002 book "The Rise of the Creative Class"...heralded the arrival of a new breed of American worker: educated, ambitious, hip, probably a mountain biker, ready to dump a job whenever hit with the slightest urge for a 'life shift.' "

I'm not where that leave the road biker, or those of us who do both...

[Too Tall]

As for the "Fey" thing. Even in hip ohsocoolspeak of NYC that term dated elitist "us / them" labeling I can do without. Thanks.

People keep forgetting sandbox rules.

[djg]

Enquiring minds and all.

[Russell]

gives me one more reason to hate the Yankees

[Bruce K]

So what's wrong with sewing?

I don't know too many other ways to:

1. build a nice kite
2. repair cycling clothing
3. save your favorite pair of jeans

or many other uses of a valuable skill.

Just one more stereotype.

BK

- who owns a Pfaff along with his Ottrott

[keno]

You may be from New York State, but you ain't from New York City.

keno

[Saxon]

"We’ve Been Outed"

That must be why passing cars always shout out "f*g!"
:crap:

[M_A_Martin]

But Bruce,
Is it a "Real" german pfaff? Or one of those cheapies they made after they got bought out?

I'm educated, I sew, I mountain bike...

Hey, where's that life shift! I'm ready to roll!

(I don't sew in bed...might loose the needle...ouch!)


The use of Fey in that context is just those word hipsters looking for the next word to abuse. That's all. Pay no attention to the idiot with too extensive a dictionary. It isn't terribly clear what the writer meant...so perhaps the writer wasn't quite sure either.

Etymology: Middle English feye, from Old English f[AE]ge; akin to Old High German feigi fey and perhaps to Old English fAh hostile, outlawed --
a. able to see into the future : VISIONARY b : marked by an otherworldly air or attitude

[Bruce K]

M_A;

It's a real one. Not the real whiz-bang computer driven jobbie but it does have more options than I ever needed.

BK

[BumbleBeeDave]

:mad: :mad: :mad:

Who you callin’ an idiot?!?!

:mad: :mad: :mad:

BBDave:mad: :mad: :p :rolleyes:

[dbrk]

Unfortunately "fey" is used nowadays also in ways that belay a direct connection to its lexical meanings. It suggests both disapprobation and an effeminate weakness (hence the vague link to its lexical sense of both "otherworldly" and "elfin"), neither of which I can find easily in earlier senses.

Perhaps cycling is otherworldly enough insofar as we ride along connected to road, weather, nature, and surroundings in ways that leave us at odds with those who zoom past us in enclosed metal boxes (we being both sorts on different occasions). They may indeed look upon us as fey, albeit more dissociated from the "ordinary" world than visionary. I had my own encounter with a fey cyclist this morning, in fact. I was making my way up an incline on a local county road when this fellow in requsite fey helmet and glasses garb (so as to make him look like everyone on a bike [almost] and no one at all) treated me to his fey diffidence as I waved, smiling happily at a "fellow cyclist". He seemed too busy (or was it fey?) on his aerobars tucked into his (if I might add, abominably ugly) Klein to take notice. I strike an odd figure, what with the wool jerseys and sweaters I prefer and the odd mix of old and new (in this case a Pegoretti Marcelo). He was all "business" in that cycling way in which perfectly ordinary people fill the role of being requisitely cool, menacing looking, and space-age. Anyway, he was the epitome of fey, or so it struck me, in the new sense of the word. I'm sure I looked like a geek, or is that "fey?" Your call.

dbrk

[csb]

German Pfaff? I thought he meant Judy Pfaff, artiste.