what was that? is that all there is? who is this? this is it.

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pit stop

December 10, 2006

When the price is an object. When you have to get something to eat or you won't make it through the day. When you ride a bike all day long. When you're looking at the happy hour menu half-price appetizers and trying to visualize which one is the biggest. You may not have realized it, but you've been unconsciously measuring Calories per Dollar (CPD). I like to think that I came up with this measure. Not the actual practice, because any cyclist who's a smart shopper does it all the time, but most people have not verbalized it this way. When it has been verbalized it was usually in reference to low-income parents making uninformed nutritional choices for their children. But I'd like to keep it upbeat (in other words, I'd like to continue to exist in my own little disconnected realm.)

Bike messengers use up a lot of calories, therefore they eat a lot of food. In this context "counting calories" takes on a new meaning and most of us don't have unlimited money to spend on food. I've spent a lot of time at the Spitfire during happy hour, and I know from experience how to rank the appetizers by their CPD. I also know that a common over-the-counter candy bar is a lot cheaper than all those wanker energy bars and does much the same thing.

RAGBRAI is another situation where CPD is important. Once again many calories are burned and therefore consumed while riding bikes.

I don't need to remind you that beer has a great CPD rating.

CPD is as important as MPG, MPH, PSI, RPM and TPI.


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Calories per Dollar said...

Miles per Gallon, Miles per Hour, Pounds per Square Inch, Revolutions per Minute, Threads per Inch. ABC, it's as easy as 123. ABC Legal Messengers. BFD. SOL.

Posted December 11, 2006 08:59 PM | Reply to this comment

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