OFF: FAO Jerry

[M Holmes]

Ted Jackson jr. 6L6 writes:

> This sounds familiar!  I met Jerry at the Bulldog a couple months
> ago.  Which one was it, as the Bulldog is a chain?  Maybe you went to
> the wrong one?

I checked the other one near the Leidesplein and it was shut until
10.00pm. Maybe he really meant to say some other Plein nearer the train
station?

> Jerry'd be pretty hard to miss, as he's a big dude
> [though everyone, male and female, in Holland, is over six feet!]
> with really long hair.  Just looks like a rocker.   Anyway, Amsterdam
> was beyond description.  Like New York without peole trying to kill
> each other!

Oh, allright then. We'd hired bikes to get around. On the way home late
one night we were cycling the correct way up one canal. A motorist
however was reversing down the wrong way and swerving around alarmingly.
If he'd just been likely to hit a bollard, I couldn't have cared, but he
was likely to hit us and we were forced onto the pavement at the other
side of the bollards. Naturally I shouted at him.

The moron (in a red sports car of course) immediately took a road rage
attack and gave chase. I took this as mostly light amusement since it
was obvious that if I stayed on the pedestrian sides of the bollards
that there was little harm he could do. When I stopped he got halfway
out of his car and shouted that he would kill me. "Go for it!" I
quipped. The chase continued for a couple of blocks in much the same
manner and he drove off at great speed elsewhere.

I thought that was the end of it and waited while my companion caught up
and we headed on. At the next canal bridge I was approaching the
junction to cross to it when I saw the red sports car stopped at the
crossroads and revving harshly, clearly threatening me if I attempted to
cross. However, having done the numbers in an exercise, and from
experience, knowing that the power to weight ratio of a bike is vastly
superior to even a sports car, and being drunk, and not figuring he
could really be that stupid anyway, I accelerated across the junction.

The bastard floored the accelerator and presumably made nought to sixty
in five seconds. However, obviously in the first second and a half he
made about one foot while I made fifteen. One up for math and drunken
bravado.

My companion, and another couple of cyclists however couldn't believe
it. In about another five seconds neither could I and I was furious and
tried to chase the car to get the number, but cars do have more power
than a bike and he was well out of sight.

I can honestly say that's the first time someone has tried to kill me.
Certainly nobody in New York cast even a hostile glance.

> theo

FoFP