Ups & Downs
Ups & Downs
UP: To Jason Bonham, son of legendary Led Zeppelin drummer John Henry Bonham, for doing good deeds in his late father’s name. Proceeds from The Jason Bonham Band’s live Led Zeppelin tribute album, In the Name of My Father-The ZepSet, and the accompanying tour, will benefit the John Bonham Memorial Motorcycle Camp and the California Police Activities League’s OffRoad Pals program, which lets underprivileged youths try their hands at motorcycle sport. An avid motorcyclist and former motocross racer (he once placed second in the British Junior National Championship), Bonham recently joined another accomplished motocrosser, factory Kawasaki star Jeff Emig, in presenting the camp with its first Kawasaki KX125; he has since donated nine more. Way to go, Bonzo!
DOWN: To cellular telephone users everywhere, for being dangerous. According to a report in The New England Journal of Medicine, operating a cell phone while driving a car makes you 4.3 times more likely to have an accident—or roughly equivalent to operating a motor vehicle at the legally drunk limit. Interestingly, using a hands-free cell phone doesn’t reduce the risk. “This may indicate that the main factor...is a driver’s limitations in attention rather than dexterity,” reported one researcher. Bikers beware.
DOWN: To Jim Scancarelli, creator of the long-running comic strip “Gasoline Alley,” for his negative depiction of motorcyclists. A recent installment showed a group of Harley riders carelessly tossing garbage as they rode past-how’s this for subliminal?—Dawcyso/7 College, as two onlookers called them “cretins.” Silly us, we thought comic strips were supposed to be funny.
