What's The Opposite of Fanatic

Most readers know that I am not a fan of sports, and that distaste extends to pseudo sports as well, like NASCAR.

What Kind of Lesson is This?
Whenever I'm stationed in a largely blue-collar area, and I've never stayed in a place as largely blue-collar as Schenectady, I always notice certain similarities.

- Folks aspire to work in an office, even if the work is menial or clerical
- Bars and churches are the most prevalent buildings in town
- The local gay bar is in the slummiest, scariest neighborhood
- Bowling is a respectable thing to do and can't be mocked
- Trucks and cars are adorned with NASCAR stickers

This poster adorns the local Sunoco gas station where I fill up.



Is the statement here, "Fill up with gas and Budweiser before driving very fast."?

I get the impression that the man in this photo is easily recognizable by most of the folks that know anything about NASCAR, and that his presence in a national ad campaign for Sunoco seems to indicate he might have some influence over our driving youth. It amazes me that folks can protest teaching family planning in schools, yet they glorify famous race car drivers holding an open beer can.

Current Knitting
I have knit a total of one whole row on the new lace shawl, and what's even more pathetic, it was a simple knit row of only 270 stitches.

Unfortunately, based on my schedule, tonight doesn't look much more promising as far as my time for knitting goes, but you never know.

Readers' Comments/Questions
Regarding lazy kates, Judy says, "Consider buying a schacht lazy kate-they're not that expensive, and are tensioned, giving more control while plying."

I think Schacht did a great thing with their lazy kate, allowing you to ply or wind off your bobbins without worrying about the dreaded "spin back." This is especially useful for someone like me who doesn't switch flyer hooks often enough sometimes, and lets the singles build up on the bobbin, so the spinning off of the singles goes from very fast bobbin turning to not-so-fast bobbin turning and will often wind back on itself, and break my singles.

Unfortunately, the Schacht lazy kate can only handle other brand bobbins up to 8 1/8" long, and I'm willing to bet the Robin Wheel bobbins are longer than that. I'll have to measure.