About ten years ago, I upgraded my front panniers from MEC Cordura bags to Ortleib waterproof bags. Since then, the old panniers have been hanging from a hook in my storage space. However, they have now gone to a better place. It emerged a month or two ago that Désirée wanted some small panniers, having borrowed some last summer for the trip to Quebec City. After some discrete negotiations, I was given the green light to give them to Désirée as birthday presents which I described as "pre-tested" along with some books she wanted.
That was at the start of the month. Strangely enough, last night I had a dream in which was arguing with Désirée's father (my brother Philip) about how that type of MEC bag hooked on. He had been insisting in his uninformed way that it wasn't a good system. (One piece of context here is that Philip does not own a bicycle. He's the black sheep of family in that respect.) I demonstrated how it was supposed to go on and pointed out that I have been using MEC bags which hooked on like that for years. There was an "oh" from my brother.
While I love my brother, I find he sometimes isn't as informed as he thinks he is. I remember one real discussion where he was insisting that "schmaltzy" had a meaning of "overly sweet". I had to point out to him that a better definition was "cloying", as "schmaltz" referred to chicken fat. It had to be pointed out to him that I had been working in a library serving a Jewish community for at least a decade at that point, so I was likely better informed than he was on the subject.
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