Breakaway News Volume No. 22 Issue No. 8 August 2017

Summer Lull

Ahh…August, lazy August! That place holder month between the festivities of July and the start of school in September. Nothing to do except laze around in the summer heat on the beach. Oh, and work, of course. Commerce still takes place here in the big burg, so when you need your item delivered quickly, give us a call. August may be lazy, but our messengers aren’t.

Congrats

Congratulations to Chris Froome of Team Sky, who won his fourth Tour de France victory. This was a historic Tour, as the first four placed riders went into the last day separated by a mere 29 seconds, the closest spread in Tour history. In the end, Froome’s team was too strong for the others, although Team Sunweb had a very strong showing, winning both the King of the Mountains and the Sprinter’s jerseys.

Down on Pronouns

Here at Breakaway, we have decided to ban pronouns. We are banning them because it bothers us to use them for us and others, and we don’t want it to be a drag on our conversation. That said, they are now banned and banished, and those will no longer be employed by us and others in the office.

Making One’s Bed

A young couple, perhaps new to the city or to our neighborhood of Hell’s Kitchen, made their bed, but we’re going to make them lie in it. Specifically, they left a mattress outside our offices in the dead of night, resulting in a $200 fine for us! This is the 21st century, however, and these youngsters forgot that security cameras are everywhere. We’ve dispatched our mattress ninjas to let them know we’re not taking this lying down.

 Two-Wheeling It

The New York Times reports that daily bicycle rides in NYC have soared to an all-time high of 450,000, and that one in five of those rides is a commute to or from work.  They don’t say much, however, about those of us who spend their work day on a bike except to mention that not long ago, “only hardened cyclists braved the chaotic traffic” (that was us) and to note one enlightened gentlemen who enjoyed his bike commute so much that he quit his job to become a bike messenger.  The more the merrier!

See You on the BU

No motorist likes to see a bridge closure, but our colleagues and other cyclists in Boston are ecstatic for that very reason.  The Boston University Bridge is closed to cars for repairs, but it’s open for bicycles. Now, if only we could work out something like this on the Brooklyn Bridge…

Stump the Band

Last month we asked what legal process is needed to allow rails to trails. Answer: Railbanking, where the owning railroad allows the trail to be repurposed, but reserves the right to convert it back to rail.

T-Shirt Question

They’re becoming a standard in commerce, and we use them, but what do Web APIs actually do? The first one to call Gil Ortiz with the correct answer will win a coveted Breakaway T-shirt.