Hi Mark -
Pinto is also a horse - a piebald horse.
Thanks,
Corwin
On Saturday, May 16, 2020 at 5:15:25 AM UTC-7, Mark Roland wrote:
>
> I had a thought formulating before I saw Grant's response: we can blame
> the estate of Honus Wagner for the preponderance of made-up names and
> anagrams. The thing about names is, most of the time, in the end, the name
> becomes the thing, the thing becomes the name.
>
> When auto manufacturers use names from the animal kingdom, they often
> choose ones that evoke speed and sleekness--Mustang, Impala, Cougar, Pinto.
> Okay, pinto is actually a bean. And also a horse with a patched coat, not
> unlike an Appaloosa. It was also a car from the Ford Motor Company known
> for exploding. Here's an idea for a Rivendell bicycle name, an anagram made
> from "Edsel B. Ford."
>
> My first thought about Platypus was, great name for a bike!. One that
> looks like this:
>
> [image: platypus bike.jpg]
>
> But seriously, naming a bicycle "Platypus" is playful and also has perhaps
> an element of thumbing the nose at the bike industry, and marketing tenets
> in general. Back to what I was saying about the thing becoming the name and
> vice versa, there is the perhaps apocryphal story of Picasso's reaction to
> someone pointing out that the portrait he painted of Getrude Stein doesn't
> actually look like Stein. In the first version, Picasso replies, "It will."
> In the second version, he replies, "In a hundred years, nobody will care
> what Gertrude looked like, but they will still be looking at my painting."
>
> Gertrude Stein wrote the poem "Sacred Emily", and it has this somewhat
> famous line (if lines from poetry can any longer be considered famous in
> these times):
>
> Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose
> Loveliness extreme.
> Extra gaiters,
> Loveliness extreme.
> Sweetest ice-cream.
> Pages ages page ages page ages.
>
> A Rivendell by any other name smells as sweet. - *Willy "shaking my
> spear" Shakespeare*
>
> Oh, and here is the image that comes to mind when I conjure a
> Winthrop-Charlene bike (Stein, coincidentally, bears a passing resemblance
> to Miss Almira Gutch:
>
> [image: winthrop charlene.gif]
>
>
>
> On Saturday, May 16, 2020 at 3:18:18 AM UTC-4, Grant @ Rivendell wrote:
>
>> I have been intrigued by platypusses since I was in elementary school.
>> Not yearly, it hasn't been a mind-worm, but I've always felt a little bit
>> closer to them, a little fonder of them and interested in them, than my
>> friends. When I was a teenager and young adult, whenever I came across the
>> name for whatever reason, it was like coming home, instant comfort.
>> Seriously. I know more about them than anybody in the bike business. I know
>> that the Latin name doesn't include any variation of "platypus" because a
>> kind of beetle got it first. They swim with eyes closed, They have one hole
>> for everything and no stomach. They use sonar, have venomous spurs, are NOT
>> endangered, have been around more than 200 million years (experts argue,
>> but nobody thinks this is outrageous). There were early huge ones, three
>> feet long.
>>
>> When Europeans started killing and stuffing them in the name of science,
>> they were accused of hoaxing. How could this animal exist? And yet, it has
>> existed 666, 6666667 times as long as Homo sapiens (if you believe we've
>> been here for 300,000 years (formerly 200,000), and you go by the 200
>> million year duration of the platypus. It's a successful animal. Less
>> changed, in that time, than any other. I don't know what "deserves respect"
>> means...I know the suggestion that something does tends to make me take the
>> opposite stance no matter what it is we're taking about--but think of it's
>> success. It's not just a funny looking animal with a funny name. It is
>> success itself.
>>
>> Our names are consistently quirky-nutty-dumb-different. A. Homer Hilsen,
>> Sam Hillborne, CLEM SMITH JR,Hunqapillar, Glorius, Wilbury, Atlantis (not
>> too quirky, there), Roadini, Roadeo, Joe Appaloosa ("Appaloosa" sans Joe
>> sounded too mainstream-perfect to me. It was hard to add the Joe, but I
>> like saying we have a Homer, Sam, Joe, Clem...
>>
>> Platypus won't be Arnulfo Platypus. At one time I was thining of a
>> gender-fluid name ("A.", Sam, George, CLEM are all that. Twenty-eight
>> percent of the Georges born in the U.S. lack external plumbing.) So it was
>> going to be Leslie or Taylor, but even I have my limits.
>>
>> It is fantastic that so many people feel so strongly. It's flattering
>> even if it's not intended to be, and if everybody dug it, I'd think
>> something was wrong, and I wouldn't like it anymore.
>>
>> As I explained to one person privately, in biological taxonomy or
>> whatever it is, you know what I'm talking about--Kingdom holds the most, a
>> phylum next most, and in descending order of
>> capacity.....class-order-family-genus, species.
>> Kingdom: Inanimatalia?
>> Phylum: Tangibulis?
>> Class: Planet-and-animal friendly..us?
>> Order: Two wheelers
>> Family: Muscle-powered ones
>> Genus: Rivendell
>> Species: Name your model
>>
>> Once the species has changed enough, it can't be in that species anymore.
>> The Pbike comes in the same sizes as the Cheviot, but it's longer, has
>> V-brakes, a different mid-joint, bigger wheels in the 55, a different
>> diagastay connection...and to me, those things didn't just justify a new
>> name, but demanded it. I dig (understand) that Stumpjumpers, Mustangs, and
>> Thunderbirds keep their names even though they change, but we don't copy
>> Specialized or Ford.
>>
>> I am really, really happy with how this bike rides and fits tires, etc.
>> Will wanted the V-brakes, and I love Will and happen to also love V-brakes.
>> We both knew it would bum out some people, but they're really good brakes.
>> Being good brakes doesn't mean the Silver/559 sidepulls aren't. Will is, in
>> his way, as much or more of a rebel as I am. He's comfortable with moves
>> that he KNOWS will bum people out, as long as he believes he's doing it for
>> the right reason. I wouldn't have been that bold, so I'm glad he was. On
>> the other hand, he kinda wanted Cheviot to stay, but he's cool with
>> Platypus. He knows all the changes.
>>
>> This taxonomic ideology is...and ideal. We may have violated it in the
>> past, a nd we may do it again, because we're not (or at least I am not)
>> perfect. Hang in there with us for a while. These are tough times. We'll
>> get about a hundred of these. We don't know what the future holds, and
>> don't read anything into that--just look around. I need to name this
>> wonderful bike Platypus. I don't want to look back and wish I had, so I'm
>> doing it now.
>> My logic is only mine, and yours is yours, and they don't have to fight
>> it out. It's not a right or wrong thing. I don't need total agreement (and
>> wouldn't trust it). I do, really really really like that you care. OK
>> then...where were we? :) -- Grant
>>
>>
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