Written in December 2022, a week after Rebecca "Becca" Wertheimer sent me the transcription of our interview at the Ride To Defeat ALS, held at the Longfellow Club in Wayland, MA September 18, 2022.
Becca created "STORIED", a terrific vehicle in a time when social media generally high-jacks authentic story telling.
Great interview by Rebecca "Becca" Wertheimer who created "STORIED". I composed this after she sent sent me the transcription of our interview at the Ride To Defeat ALS, held at the Longfellow Club in Wayland, MA September 18, 2022.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/q891r333iefghy2/Paul%20Tamburello%20and%20Myke%20Farricker%20ALS%20ride%202022.wav?dl=0
Consider this a 20 minute podcast in which Becca asks how and why I created the ride, how and why I got the idea to carry the names of Honorary Riders in my bike bag during each ride, and my connection with Myke Farricker over the years. Myke's brother Pete, who succumbed to ALS, a member of a world championship frisbee team, is the red-headed athlete on our T-shirts.
Myke is the co-owner of the Longfellow Clubs in Natick and Wayland, MA where the ride has been held for over 20 years. Myke adds to the story right after I finish.
Riders sat down to share their stories of why they rode in the fund raiser and for whom they were riding. https://www.storiedme.com
Storied is the answer to preserving family history, lore and funny tales. It is a unique way to facilitate sharing what you love, admire, and have learned from those around you."
As a Licensed Clinical Social Worker for over a decade, I have spent hours honing the skills of listening, asking questions, and helping people feel comfortable sharing. With Storied, I use these skills to promote joy and connection
Becca welcomes every interviewee, makes it an easy space for everyone to tell their story. True to her purpose, she promoted joy for me and Myke as we had the opportunity to tell the " creation story" of the ride.
Myke recalled how we met at a personal growth seminar in the 1970s and later joined forces to merge my solo Positive Spin for ALS and a group ALS fund-raiser held at The Longfellow Club into the Positive Spin for ALS and now the current Ride To Defeat ALS.
The Ride To Defeat ALS raised $435,000 in 2022 and $3,555,225 total in the ride from 1995, which includes $300,000 from my solo rides
Riders did the "TALK WITH ME SHARE WITH THEM" process to say why and for whom they were riding. I've never such an opportunity to tell what I call the creation story of the ride that began with a visit to a neurologist at Mass General Hospital in 1975 and continues to this day. Once I began, the words came out in a torrent and in the most appropriate time and place to tell them, the September 18, 2022 Ride To Defeat ALS.
Myke had the shirts and hats made for our first rides in 2003!
This event is the great grandmother of ALS fund raisers. A Positive Spin for ALS that I created in 1995 was the first bike ride in the country dedicated to raise money for research and direct services to ALS patients. Now known as Ride to Defeat ALS, it became the template for rides that now take place in California, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Oregon, and Washington.
As I note in my story with Becca, my solo fund-raising rides before merging to make it a participatory ride were 1995-2004 - I sent appeal letters before every ride and followed with Thank You letters to each contributor within a few weeks of completing the "Spins."
As referenced above, Sue McNichols showing up as I was preparing to get on my bike at Plymouth Rock, handing me an envelope then driving away is one of many amazing stories about my rides.
Appeal letter and Honorary Rider inserts that were in each appeal letter that I sent for my ride in 2020. The recording of "my story" in the link above explains how I was inspired to create "Honorary Riders," the "connective tissue" between me and the ALS community over the years.
FACTOID #1: While pedaling through Myles Standish State Forest south of Plymouth, MA in 1995, I said to self, "You're putting a positive spin on how you're dealing with this life change...if I do this ride again, that's what I'm going to name it...A Positive Spin for ALS"...and so it became!
FACTOID #2: During my June 14, 1997 ride, I was interviewed on air by Matt Pitta, WQRC Hyannis, MA. I had borrowed one of the first mobile phones from a friend so he could reach me and conduct the interview while I was pedaling through through Myles Standish Park. Way cool.
"Quite Enough of Calvin Trillin: 40 Years of Funny Stuff"
From the archives...CALVIN TRILLIN
Upon Reading In The Middle Of The Night
Don’t plan on reading "Quite Enough of Calvin Trillin: 40 Years of Funny Stuff" if you happen to be sleeping with someone. By the time you’re halfway through one of his Funny Stuff riffs, “Corrections” for example, you will have guffawed awake your (fill in one) girlfriend, wife, husband, boyfriend, family dog, children in the next room, who will probably not share your hilarity since it is 3:20 AM, an hour customarily reserved for sound repose.
You will quite possibly be greeted with sullen stares at the hour of normal reveille. Citing Trillin as a master of dry, urbane, witty humor who should be on any intelligent reader’s list won’t get much traction. You will likely discover that your copy of said book has gone missing by nightfall.
It’s hard to believe a guy could have a writing voice so damn funny, slyly literate, and keep it going for forty years. His ‘stuff’ has appeared in The New Yorker, The Nation, and a bunch of books. Ordinarily when you see a list like this, you’re thinking, well those are high falutin’ places, he’s probably pretty stuffy. Wrong.
There are about two hundred bite sized essays and short zippy poems in the twenty sections of Funny Stuff – a few categories: “The Media – Liberal Elite and Otherwise”, “Tales Of A Clean Plate Ranger” (figure that one out), “High Society and Just Plain Rich People”, “Twenty Years Of Pols – One Poem Each”, “Family Matters”, “Beasts Of The Field, Fish Of The Sea, And Chiggers In The Tall Grass,” “English And Some Languages I Don’t Speak,” and “Foreigners.”
Ol’ Calvin can elevate everyday stuff into hilarity that makes you laugh out loud. A few titles: “People In Charge,” “Chicken A La King,” The Italian West Indies,” “Thoughts On Power Neck Wear,” “Economics, With Power Steering,” “Voodoo Economics Up Close,” “Social Questions From Aunt Rosie,” “T.S. Eliot And Me,” “Slip Covers Just Bloom In The Spring, Tra La,” “Holistic Heuristics,” “Killer Bagels,” “Molly and the V Chip,” “Losing China,” … the list goes on.
There are other authors I could add to this DNR (Do Not Read In The Middle Of The Night) list. Billy Collins comes to mind in the poetry department. I’m sure you have a list of your own books that if read during the hours in which you’re supposed to be collecting REM, can cause relational distress.
Remedies might include slipping down to the den or garage (where it’s likely your copy has been hidden) when you have the urge to read such books as a dark of night diversion. I could suggest that you never crack open Trillin’s book but caveat emptor. Once you do, it will be too late.
PS If you have doubt about Trillin's sense of humor, watch the clip of Calvin Trillin on The Daily Show. (If I were clever enough, I'd write a poem about it).
More Trillin...
http://www.npr.org/2011/09/09/140338165/an-anthology-and-a-life-full-of-funny-stuff
Daily Show with Jon Stewart
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2012/02/24/daily-circuit-calvin-trillin/
and
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/29/books/review-in-jackson-1964-calvin-trillin-reports-on-race.html
October 30, 2023 in Commentaries | Permalink | Comments (0)