Audrey Meadows and bicycle commuting

I've been trying to become less obsessed with my bike commute. Until recently, my rule had been to ride unless conditions were truly abominable. I've evidence that "obsessed" is the right word here. So, for example, a police officer who checks my badge on arriving to work (and who jokes about how many miles I get to the cheeseburger) told me last week that I was super dedicated to biking and, on days when it's cold and otherwise unpleasant, people I pass in the hallways like to ask whether I've ridden the bike to work. Since for a while now I've been trying to stem loss of bone mass, my new goal is to do more aerobic exercise of a weight-bearing nature -- basically treadmilling it.

Teadmill use requires some form of distraction. DVDs and VCR tapes work a little better than television programs. Recently I saw 2006 Tour de France highlights, recently lent me by a friend at work, and, yesterday, I started That Touch of Mink, a movie comedy from the early '60's that I recorded off-air but didn't get around to viewing years ago. This movie is funny like the old wise-cracking comedies of the late 30's and its 50's innocence has an antique appeal.

The wise cracks make for lots of quotability. Here's my favorite from the portion of the film I saw last night. Audrey Meadows, Dois Day's sidekick, is making quips about the plight of women, like Doris, who are man-magnets and thus subjected to constant temptation to do what they know they shouldn't do. As one commenter says, the movie seems to be inviting us to see the sidekick as secretly in love with Doris herself. So, at one point, speaking of MEN, she says: "For two thousand years we've had their children, washed their clothes, cooked their meals and cleaned their houses and what have they given us in return? The right to smoke in public. And you don't even smoke!" It's funny, it obliquely says quite a bit about the period which was coming to a close when the movie was made, and its serious undertone has a kind of millenial timelessness.

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I couldn't find any stills from the film that show Meadows face-on, so here's another publicity still that shows her with older sister Jayne:

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