08 March 2007

How not to Laugh with Floyd... Landis

Hello ZEN'ers, In the French cycling Vélo Magazine (Mars 2007 – Numéro 439: p20) appears a cartoon in four panels, about Floyd Landis.

Entitled (Translated from French) 'An Ordinary Morning', the absurd caricature of Floyd can be seen in four different panels: a- rudely awoken by his alarm clock; b- scruffily brushing his teeth before the bathroom mirror; c- at the breakfast table overlooking his cat on the floor; and, d- outside on his bicycle under a cold grey sky.

The monologue into his telephone presents the following items:

1 (Wake-up): “Hello, Attorney Saint Kant? Floyd Landis calling. I dispute the analysis of time from my ALARM CLOCK! Let's go to court!”

2 (Mirror): “Hello, Attorney Saint Kant? Yes, it's Floyd again. I dispute the analysis of my face by this mirror! Yes! Let's attack!”

3 (Cat): “Attorney Saint Kant? Yes, it's me! My dog just went 'MEOW'! What do you mean, I don't have a dog?? Little matter: let's go, Go!”

4 (on bike): “I would do well to challenge my 'challenges'!! I'm going to find an attorney, someone competent, to challenge this Saint Kant who tells me nothing valuable!”


Where is the humour? I guess if you're a part of the French cycling world, indoctrinated through French media (State-owned television France 2 and France 3) such as the sports newspaper l'Equipe, you might even think that their Laboratoire National de Dépistage du Dopage (LNDD) had presented a valid case against this victor of the 2006 Tour de France.


I, however, see this as a cultural brainwashing, imposing a view that this American winner is another sue-happy American born of our horrible legal system, willing to go to great lengths to win his case on a technicality.

We'll only know after the scheduled May 14th hearing, under the auspices of the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA).

Carry on: Back to your lives, which are already in progress.


ç*”*”*””*ç”*”* ZENmud ”*””*ç*”*”*””*ç”

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